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AUTHOR: 


MASTERMAN,  JOHN 
HOWARD  BERTRAM 


TITLE: 


THE  DAWN  OF 
MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE, 


PLACE: 


NEW  YORK 


DA  TE : 


1910 


Master  Negative  # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


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Masterman,  John  Howard  Bertram,  fcp.  oj  Plymouth 

1867-  ' 

The  da^vIl  of  mediaeval  Europe,  476-918,  by  J.  Howard 
B.  Masterman  ...  with  twelve  maps.  4th  od*  Londony 
Meth«en^&  co.-4td.-tl9185  New  York,  Liicinillan,   1910. 

.-.f^*^^.^^^'  ^^^  P'J^^^'  ^^o"*-'  »^^"s.  (maps)   geneaL  tables.    19"".     (Half- 
tUie:  Six  ages  of  European  history  ...    vol.  i) 

Bibliography :  p.  xv-xix. 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


1.  Europe— Hist.— 476-1492.        i.  Title. 


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SIX  AGES  OF   EUROPEAN  HISTORY 

From  A.D.  476  to  1878 

IN  SIX  VOLUMES 
General  Editor:  A.   H.  JOHNSON,  M.A. 

FELLOW  OP  ALL   SOULS*  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


VOLUME   I 

THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

476-918 


For  the  Higher  Forms  of  Schools 


SIX  AGES  OF  EUROPEAN  HISTORY 

From  A.D.  476  to  1878 
IN  SIX  VOLUMES 

Edited  by  A.  H.  JOHNSON,  M.A. 
Fellow  of  All  Souls'  College,  Oxford 

Vol.  I.    THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE.    476- 
918.    By  the  Rev.  J.  H.  B.  Masterman,  M.A.,  Professor  of 
History  in  the  University  of  Birmingham. 

Vol.  II.  THE  CENTRAL  PERIOD  OF  THE  MIDDLE 
AGE.  918-1273.  By  Beatrice  A.  Lees,  Resident  History 
Tutor,  Somerville  College,  Oxford. 

Vol.  III.  THE  END  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGE.  1273-1453. 
By  Eleanor  C.  Lodge, Vice-Principal  and  Modern  History 
Tutor,  Lady  Margaret  Hall,  Oxford. 

Vol.  IV.  EUROPE  IN  RENAISSANCE  AND  REFOR- 
MATION. 1453-1660.  By  Mary  A.  Hollings,  M.A.,. 
Dublin,  Headmistress  of  hdgbaston  Church  of  England 
College  for  Girls. 

Vol.  V.  THE  AGE  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENED  DESPOT. 
1660-1789.  By  A.  H.  Johnson,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls' 
College,  Oxford. 

Vol.  VI.  THE  REMAKING  OF  MODERN  EUROPE. 
1789-1878.  By  J.  A.  R.  Markiott,  M.A.,  Lecturer  and 
Tutor  in  Modern  History  and  Economics  at  Worcester 
College,  Oxford. 


THE  DAWN  OF 
MEDIv^VAL  EUROPE 


476-918 


BY 


J.   HOWARD  B.  MASTERMAN 

PROFESSOR     OF     HISTORY     IN     THE     I'NIVERSITY     OF     BIRMINGHAM 


WITH    TWELVE    MAPS 


« 


NEW  YORK 
THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

1910 


CONTENTS 


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CHAP.  PAOl 

Chronological  Table xi 

BlBLIOQRAPHT XV 

I.  Intboddction 1 

II.  The  Empire  in  476 8 

III.  The  Rise  op  Theodobic 16 

IV.  The  Gothic  Kingdom  in  Italy 26 

V.  The  Rise  op  the  Franks         ...;..  39 

VI.  Justinian 54 

VII.  Benedict  op  Nursia  and  Columban       ....  65 

VIII.  The  Rise  op  Mohammedanism 73 

IX.  The  Lombards  in  Italy  and  the  Rise  of  the  Papacy  81 

X.  The  Mayors  op  the  Palace 95 

XI.  Charles  Martel 104 

XII.  Pippin,  King  op  the  Franks 113 

XIII.  The  Pope,  the  Lombards  and  the  Franks  .        .        .  120 

XIV.  The  Iconoclastic  Emperors 133 

XV.  Charles  the  Great  and  the  Lombard  Kingdom        .  146 

XVI.  The  Saxon  Wars 164 

XVII.  Charles,  King  op  the  Franks 160 

XVIII.  Carolus  Imperator 171 

▼a 


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viii  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 

CHAP.  PAOB 

XIX.  Law  and  Administration  in  the  Empire      .        .        .  186 
XX.  Alcuin  and  the  Revival  op  Learning.     John  Scotus    191 

XXI.  The  Charlemagne  op  Romance 200 

XXII.  The  Reign  op  Louis  the  Pious 204 

XXIII.  The  Break-up  op  the  Carolingian  Empire         .        .  212 

XXIV.  The  Norsemen,  the  Saracens  and  the  Magyars        .  226 
XXV.  The  Dark  Ages 237 

XXVI.  Some  Chroniclers  op  the  Period         ....  241 

Appendix .  247 

Index 249 


GENEALOGICAL  TABLES 

The  Family  of  Theodoric .        .24 

Early  Merovingians 48 

The  Arnulping  House 97 

The  Carolingian  Dynasty 205 


LIST    OF    MAPS 

PAGB 

The  Western  Provinces  of  the  Empire  .        .        .       Frontispiece 

Europe,  476  a.d :        ....        9 

Gaul  in  600  a.d .41 

Italy  in  the  Seventh  Century 83 

The  Empire  in  the  Eighth  Century 135 

Italy,  768-813 151 

Europe  in  the  Time  op  Charles  the  Great    .        .        .        .173 

The  Lower  Rhine igg 

Partition  op  Verdun 214 

Marqravates  op  Northern  Italy 223 

Western  Europe  in  900  a.d 225 

Northern  France 232 


I'  i 

I 


ft 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

(Events  of  English  history  printed  in  Italics.) 


476.  Deposition  of  Romulus  Augustulus. 

Odoacer  becomes  King  of  Italy. 

481.  Accession  of  Clovis  as  King  of  the  Franks. 

489.  Theodoric  invades  Italy. 

493.  Fall  of  Ravenna  and  death  of  Odoacer. 

495.  Cerdic  founds  kingdom  of  Wessex. 

496.  Baptism  of  Clovis  after  victory  over  Alemanni  at  Tolbiao. 
511.  Death  of  Clovis. 

526.  Death  of  Theodoric. 

528.  Accession  of  Justinian. 

533.  Conquest  of  North  Africa  by  Belisarius. 

536.  Capture  of  Rome  by  Belisarius. 

543.  Death  of  Benedict  of  Nursia. 

547.  Ida  founds  kingdom  of  Northum^ria. 

553.  Departure  of  the  Goths  from  Italy. 

565.  Death  of  Justinian. 

Mission  of  Columba  to  lona. 

568.  Lombards,  under  Alboin,  migrate  into  Italy. 

581.  Accession  of  Heraclius  as  Emperor. 

590.  Gregory  the  Great  becomes  Pope. 

597.  Mission  of  Augustine  to  England. 

-614.  Death  of  Brunhilda. 

622.  The  flight  {Heriga)  of  Mohammed. 

626.  Siege  of  Constantinople  by  the  Persians. 

633.  Edwin  of  Northumhria  slain  by  Penda  of  Mercia. 

634.  Battle  of  Yermuk— Conquest  of  Syria  by  the  Moslems. 
637.  Surrender  of  JerusaleuL  to  Omar. 


zt 


xu 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


Xill 


lii 


639.  Death  of  Pippin  of  Landen. 

640.  Saracen  conquest  of  Egypt. 

656.  Unsuccessful  attempt  of  Grimoald  to  depose  the  Merovingiam 

King. 

688.  Pippin  of  Heristal  becomes  Mayor  of  Austrasia. 

711.  Battle  of  Guadelete — Saracen  conquest  of  Spain. 

715.  Death  of  Pippin. 

717.  Accession  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  as  Emperor. 

Charles  Martel  becomes  Mayor  of  Austrasia  and  Neustria. 

718.  Saracen  siege  of  Constantinople. 

720.  Beginning  of  missionary  labours  of  Boniface. 

726.  Iconoclastic  edict — Resistance  of  Gregory  II. 

727.  Conquest  of  Exarchate  by  Liutprand. 

732.  Victory  of  Charles  Martel  over  Saracens  at  Poictiers. 

735.  Death  of  the  Venerable  Bede  in  Northumbria. 

741.  Death  of  Charles  Martel — Pippin  and  Carloman,  Mayors. 

747.  Abdication  of  Carloman  after  Alemannian  campaign. 

752.  Pippin  becomes  King  of  the  Franks. 

754.  Pippin's  campaign  against  Aistulf. 

Death  of  Boniface. 

765.  Accession  of  Off  a  as  King  of  Mercia. 

l&J.  Frank  conquest  of  Aquetaine. 

768.  Death  of  Pippin — Accession  of  Charles  and  Carloman. 

773.  Invasion  of  Lombardy  by  Charles. 

774.  First  visit  of  Charles  to  Rome. 

Fall  of  Pa  via  and  end  of  Lombard  kingdom. 

775.  First  Saxon  campaign. 

778.  Spanish  campaign,  and  death  of  Roland  at  Roncesvalles. 

782.  Alcuin  joins  the  Court  of  Charles. 

787.  First  appearance  of  the  Northmen  in  England. 

788.  Fall  of  Tassilo — Annexation  of  Bavaria  by  Charles. 
790.  Avar  campaign. 

794.  Death  of  Off  a  of  Mercia, 

795.  Death  of  Pope  Hadrian  I. — Leo  III.  succeeds. 
Norse  invasions  of  Ireland  begin. 

797.  Irene  dethrones  Constantine. 

799.  First  appearance  of  Northmen  in  Francia. 

800.  Coronation  of  Charles  as  Emperor. 
802.  Deposition  of  Irene. 

814.  Death  of  Charles  the  Great. 


•822. 
827. 
«29. 
833. 

«40. 
841. 
643. 
845. 
847. 
«49. 
«71. 
872. 
«76. 
877. 
878. 
884. 
886. 
887. 
888. 

896. 
899. 

900. 
901. 
911. 


918. 


Birth  of  Charles  the  Bald. 

Egbert  overlord  of  all  England. 

First  Civil  War  in  Francia. 

The  Liigenfeld  (Field  of  Lies) — Louis  the  Pious  deposed  and 

restored. 
Death  of  Louis  the  Pious. 
Battle  of  Fontenay. 

Oath  of  Strasburg  and  Partition  of  Verdun. 
Sack  of  Paris  by  Northmen. 
Sack  of  Bordeaux  by  Northmen. 
Victory  of  Leo  over  Saracens  at  Ostia. 
Accession  of  Alfred  in  England. 
Victory  of  Louis  over  Saracens  at  Salerno. 
Death  of  Louis  the  German. 
Death  of  Charles  the  Bald. 

Peace  of  Wedmore  between  Alfred  and  the  Danes. 
Empire  reunited  under  Charles  the  Fat. 
Siege  of  Paris  by  Northmen. 

Deposition  of  Charles  the  Fat — Final  break-up  of  Empire. 
Odo  becomes  King  of  West  Francia,  Arnulf  of  Germany,  Ber- 

engar  of  Italy,  Rudolph  of  Upper  Burgundy. 
First  appearance  of  Magyars  in  the  West. 
Death  of  Arnulf. 

Charles  the  Simple,  King  of  West  Francia. 
Berengar  sole  King  of  Italy. 
Death  of  Alfred — Edward  the  Elder  succeeds. 
Death  of  Louis  the  Child — Conrad  elected  as  King. 
Treaty  of  Claire-sur-Epte  between  Charles  the  Simple  and  the 

Northmen. 
Death  of  Conrad— Henry  the  Fowler,  Duke  of  Saxony,  elected 

King. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(For  some  account  of  the  chief  original  authorities  see  pp.  241-6.) 

Students  of  the  period  should,  if  possible,  read  Einhard's  Life  of 
Charles  the  Great  and  the  latter  part  of  Gregory  of  Tours. 


Text-books  for  the  Period  — 

Church  :  The  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Oman  :  The  Dark  Ages. 

Lavisse  and  Rambaud  :  Histoire  O^n^rale,  vol.  i. 


The  Eastern  Empire — 
For  Beginners : — 

Oman  :  The  Byzantine  Empire  ("  Story  of  the  Nations  "  Series). 
Freeman:    The  Byzantine  Empire  in    "Historical  Essays," 
First  Series. 

For  more  Advanced  Students : — 


Gibbon  :  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Bury  :  History  of  the  Later  Rom^n  Empire. 
Finlay :  History  of  Greece. 


XV 


XVI 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xvu 


Church  History — 

For  Beginners : — 

Milman :  History  of  Latin  Christianity. 

For  more  Advanced  Students  : — 

Duchesne  :  Les  Premiers  temps  de  VEtat  Pontifical. 

Hefele  :  History  of  Councils. 

Montalembert ;  Monks  of  the  West. 

Dudden:     Gregory    the    Great— His  Place    in    History    and 

Thotight. 
Henderson :  Select  Historical  Documents  of  the  Middle  Ages 

(for  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict). 
Gregorovius  :  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom  im  Mittelalter  (of  which 

there  is  an  English  translation). 

The  History  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Italy — 
For  Beginners : — 

Hodgkin  :  Theodaric  ("  Heroes  of  the  Nations  "  Series). 
Bradley  :  The  Goths  ("Story  of  the  Nations"  Series). 
Freeman :    The  Goths  at  Ravenna  in  "  Historical   Essays," 
Third  Series. 

For  more  Advanced  Students  :  — 

Hodgkin  :  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  vols,  i.-iv. 
Article  on  Theodoric  in  the  "  Dictionary  of  Christian  Bio- 
graphy". 

The  Lombards — 

Hodgkin  :  Italy  and  B^er  Invaders^  vols,  v.-vi. 

The  Franks — 

For  Beginners  : — 

Sargeant :  The  Franks  ("  Story  of  the  Nations  "  Series). 
Freeman  :  The  Franks  and  the  Gauls  in  "  Historical  Essays," 
First  Series. 


For  more  Advanced  Students  : — 

Kitchin  :  History  of  France. 

Freeman  :  Western  Europe  in  the  Fifth  Century. 

„  Western  Europe  in  the  Eighth  Century. 

Kurth  :  Histoire  de  Clovis. 


The  Empire  of  Charles  the  Great— 
For  Beginners  : — 

Grant :  Early  Lives  of  Charlemagne  (translation  of  Einhard 

and  the  Monk  of  St.  Gall). 
Hodgkin  :  Charles  the  Great  ('*  Foreign  Statesmen  "  Series). 
Davis  :  Charlemagtve  ("  Heroes  of  the  Nations  "  Series). 
Bryce  :  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

For  more  Advanced  Students  : — 

Hodgkin  :  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  vols,  vii.-viii. 
Kleinclausz:    U Empire    Carolingien,    Ses    Origines    et    Se$ 

Transformations. 
Guizot :  History  of  Civilisation. 
Jahrbiicher  des  deutschen  Reiches. 

Miihlbacher :  Deutsche  Geschichte  unter  den  Karolingern. 
Mullinger :  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great. 
Browne  :  Alcuin  of  York. 

The  Northmen — 
For  Beginners : — 

Johnson :  The  Normans  in  Europe. 

Freeman  :  The  Early  Sieges  of  Paris  in  •'  Historical  Essays," 
First  Series. 

For  more  Advanced  Students :  — 

Palgrave  :  History  of  England  and  Normandy, 
Freeman  :  The  Norman  Conquest. 

Steenstrup  :  Introduction  d  V Histoire  des  Normands  et  de  leurs 
Invasions. 


XVIU 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The  beginnings  of  French  Civilisation — 
For  more  Advanced  Students  : — 

Lavisse  :  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  i. 

Pustel  de  Coulanges.     Several  important  monographs  in  the 

Histoire  des  Institutions  Politiques  de  VAncienne  France, 
Favre :  Eudes,  Comte  de  Paris  et  Roi  de  France. 
Rambaud :  Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  Frangaise. 


The  Early  History  of  Germany— 
For  Beginners : — 

Stubbs  :  Germany  in  the  Early  Middle  Ages. 

For  more  Advanced  Students : — 

Dahn :  Die  Koenige  der  Germanen. 
Giesebrecht :  Geschichte  de  Deutchen  Kaiserzeit. 
Fisher  :  The  Mediceval  Empire. 
Diimmler :  Geschichte  des  Ostfr&nkischen  Reiches. 

For  some  Special  Aspects  of  the  Period  : — 

Lecky  :  History  of  European  Morals. 

Poole  :  Illustrations  of  the  History  of  MedicBval  Thought. 

Margoliouth :  Mahomet. 

Maps : — 


Poole:    Historical  Atlas.        Maps  3,   4,   32,   33,  64,  71,  72. 

(These  can  be  purchased  separately.) 
Putzger  :  Historischer  School  Atlas. 
Wolderman  :  Plastischer  School  Atlas. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XIX 


Historical  Novels — 
The  following  throw  light  on  various  parts  of  the  Period  : — 


Kingsley :  Hypatia. 
Dahn :  Felicitas. 

„       The  Scarlet  Banner. 

,,       A  Struggle  for  Rome. 
Collins^  Antonina. 
Ebers  :  The  Bride  of  the  Nile. 
Hfiudy :  Passe  Rose. 
Hodgetts  :  Kormak  tlie  Viking. 


THE 
DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

476-918 
CHAPTEE    I 

INTRODUCTION 

T^HE  period  that  we  call  the  Middle  Ages  extends 
from  the  break-up  of  the  Koman  Empire  in  the  west 
in  the  fifth  century  to  the  Kenaissance  in  the  fifteenth — 
a  period  of  about  a  thousand  years.  The  night  of  this 
great  day  of  human  history  may  be  said  to  last  through 
the  first  three  hundred  years  (450-750),  and  the  early 
dawn  begins  with  the  events  that  lead  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Empire  of  Charles  the  Great.  The 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  are  the  morning,  and 
the  thirteenth  the  high  noon,  from  which  it  declines  to 
the  afternoon  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  the  even- 
ing of  the  fifteenth. 

The  Europe  of  the  fifth  century  was  dominated  by  The 
two  influences— the  influence  of  Eoman  Imperialism  ^"'P^'^® 
land  that  of  the  Christian  Church.  Though  the  Empire 
fell  to  pieces  in  the  west  it  lived  on  in  the  east,  gradu- 
ally changing  its  character,  but  retaining  in  its  laws 
I  and  ideals  of  government  the  traditions  of  the  Imperial 
organisation  that  Augustus  had  founded  and  Diocletian 
1 


2  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

remodelled   on  a  more   despotic   basis.     It  is   a  great 
mistake  to  underestimate  the  influence  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  on  Western  Europe.     Constantinople  was  not 
•    only  the  frontier  fortress  of  Europe  in  the  East,  it  was 
also  the  home  of  Eoman  law  and  of  a  civiHsation  that 
had  become  Greek  in  its  outer  dress,  but  remained  largely 
Koman  in  its  inner  character. 
Influence        ^ut  the  inheritance  of  Kome  passed  on  to  the  new 
onth?'^    world   through   two   other    channels.       The    Teutonic 
peopieT     peoples  who  poured  into  the  almost  depopulated  pro- 
vinces of  the  west  came  under  the  spell  of  Kome.    They 
marched  along  the  roads  that  Eome  had  made,  they 
passed,  as  friends  or  foes,  by  cities  that  Kome  had  built. 
The  ambition  of  their  greatest  leaders— of   men  like 
Alaric  or  Theodoric— was  not  to  destroy  but  to  rebuild 
the  Koman  world  of  ordered  rule  and  equal  justice.     In 
Gaul  and  in  Italy  the  language  and  ideas  of  Kome 
turned  the  Frank  and  Lombard  conquerors  into  French- 
men and  Italians. 

Meanwhile   Imperial    Kome   became   Papal    Kome. 
plpacy*^^  When  the  long  centuries  of  contest  between  the  Church 
and  the  Empire  closed  with  the  accession  of  Constantine, 
the  result  was  not  only  that  the  Empire  became  Chris- 
tian, but  also  that  the  Church  became  Imperial.     Soon 
after,  the  transference  of  the  Imperial  Court  to  Con- 
stantinople left  the  Bishop  of  Kome  incomparably  the 
greatest    figure   in   the    city   by   the    Tiber.     And   as 
Christianity    spread    through    Western    Europe    the 
authority  of  the  Koman  See  grew  constantly  wider. 
So  when  the  bond  of  a  common  political  organisation 
no  longer   held  Western  Europe  together,  the  bond 


INTRODUCTION  3 

of  a  common  religious  organisation  began  to  take  its 
place.  As  inheritor  of  the  Imperial  tradition,  the 
Papacy  became  not  only  a  religious  but  also  a  political 
power. 

The  claims  of  the  Koman  See  were  at  first  resented 
by  the  Teutonic  peoples,  who  had  adopted  the  Arian 
form  of  Christianity  from  the  earliest  missionaries  who 
had  laboured  among  them.  But  the  conversion  of 
Clovis  to  Catholic  Christianity  in  496  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  extension  of  Papal  authority  over  the 
Teutonic  tribes,  and  the  labours  of  Augustine  and  his 
successors  in  England  in  the  seventh  century,  and  of 
the  great  missionary  Archbishop  Boniface  in  Germany 
in  the  eighth,  insured  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  in  the 
West.  Of  the  Teutonic  peoples  that  remained  Arian,  the 
Ostrogoths  vanished  from  history,  and  the  Vandals  and 
Visigoths  fell  under  the  sway  of  the  Moslems,  the 
latter  soon  after  they  had  abandoned  the  Arian  for  the 
Catholic  Creed. 

In  the  East  the  claims  of  the  Papacy  were  resisted, 
not  only  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  as 
Bishop  of  New  Kome  claimed  to  be  the  equal  of  the 
Bishop  of  Old  Kome,  but  also  by  the  emperors,  who 
asserted  their  right  to  exercise  over  the  Church  the 
same  autocratic  authority  that  they  exercised  over  the 
State.  The  Eastern  and  Western  Churches  drifted  apart, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  the  separa- 
|tion  was  almost  complete. 

The  Teutonic  invaders  brought  their  own  contribution  Teutoniq 
to  the  life  of  the  Middle  Ages.     The  idea  of  personal  '^^'^ 
liberty  that  appears  in  early  Teutonic  law,  the  practice  of 


4  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 

commendation  and  the  authority  of  the  chief  over  his 
comUes,  the  institutions  of  elective  monarchy  and  of  the 
assemblies  of  free  warriors,  exercised  a  profound  m- 
fluence  over  the  new  world  that  was  shapmg  itself  out 
of  the  fragments  of  the  old. 

The  reign  of  Theodoric  was  the  first  attempt  to 
harmonise  the  old  and  the  new,  to  blend  the  Eoman 
ideals  of  order  and  civUUas  with  the  Teutomc  spirit  of 
freedom  The  Arianism  of  the  Goths  and  the  opposition 
of  a  party  among  the  Eoman  nobles  made  the  task  a 
difficult  one,  and  with  the  death  of  Theodoric  and  the 
revival  of  the  Empire  under  Justinian,  the  Gothic 
kingdom  crumbled  away. 

But  the  Empire,  confronted  by  new  dangers  m  the 
East,  first  from  the  aggressions  of  the  Persian  kings  and 
then  from  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism,  could  not  keep 
what  it  had  won.  Thirteen  years  before  Herachus 
arose  to  save  the  Empire,  the  Lombards  had  mhented 
the  lands  that  the  Goths  had  abandoned. 

The  Lombards,  contented  to  rule  and  extend  their 

territories  without   any  effort  to  assimilate  the  native 

population,  remained  an  aristocracy  of  nobles  settled 

among  a  subject  people.   If  the  Lombard  kings  could  have 

conquered  Eome,  as  they  conquered  Eavenna,  they  might 

have  been  able  to  build  up  an  Italian  kingdom  through 

the   fusion  of   Eoman   and  Teutonic  institutions  and 

ideas.      But  the  Lombards  produced  no   great  leader 

with  enough  of  the  statesman  in  him  to  attempt  the 

task  in  which  Theodoric  had  failed.     Perhaps  in  any 

case  it  would  have  proved  impossible,  for  by  the  middle 

of  the  eighth  century  Italy  was  no  longer  free  to  shape 


INTRODUCTION  5 

her  own  destiny  to  supremacy.  The  central  fact  of  the 
eighth  century  was  the  rise  of  the  Franks  in  Western  Rise  of 
Europe,  under  the  great  Mayors  of  the  Palace.  The 
victory  of  Charles  Martel,  at  Poictiers  in  732,  rescued 
the  West  from  the  danger  of  Moslem  rule,  and  the  alli- 
ance of  King  Pippin  with  the  Pope  in  752  associated  the 
fortunes  of  the  Teutonic  world  of  the  north  with  those 
of  Eome.  The  Ehine  and  the  Tiber  were  linked 
together,  and  the  Ehone  and  the  Po  passed  under  their 
sway. 

At  last,  just  as  the  eighth  century  ended,  the  three 
influences  that  had  been  making  the  new  Europe  con- 
verged, when  Charles  the  Great,  as  Emperor  of  the 
West,  became  representative  in  his  own  person  of  the 
union  of  Eoman,  Ecclesiastical  and  Teutonic  ideas. 
The  coronation  of  Charles  was  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  same  man  was  now  the  head  of  the  Christian 
Church,  the  inheritor  of  the  Eoman  Imperial  dignity 
and  the  master  of  the  Teutonic  world. 

But  the  Empire  of  Charles  the  Great  had  in  it  the  Decay  of 
seeds  of  dissolution.     Its  strength  lay  in  its  Teutonic  gj^n^ Em- 
military  organisation,  and  as  this  was  founded  on  the^'^*^ 
idea  of  personal  service  it  broke  down  with  the  revival 
of  local  feeling.     It  had  the  unity  of  a  common  ecclesi- 
astical  organisation,    but   the   attempt   to  establish   a 
common  administrative  system  failed  through  the  tribal 
and  local  antagonisms  that  awoke  as  soon  as  the  great 
Emperor  was  dead.     The  Prankish  judicial  system,  by 
which  every  man  was  judged  by  the  law  of  his  own 
nation,  prevented  the  development  of  a  common  code 
of  law  for  the  Empire.     For  a  time,  in  the  middle  of  the 


6 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  i  EUROPE 


tenth  century,  the  Holy  Koman  Empire  of  Otho  the 
Great  seemed  destined  to  reaHse  part  at  least  of  the 
ideal  of  the  Carolingian  Empire,  but  the  long  struggles 
of  the  Papacy  with  the  Empire,  and  the  resistance  of  the 
feudal   nobihty  to  the  autocratic  claims  of   the  kings, 
supported  by  Eoman  civil  law,  ended  at  last  in  the  dis- 
integration of  the  mediaeval  world. 
Disintegra-      But  it  was  not  Only  from  within  that  the  Empire  of 
nhJth^       Charles  was  weakened.     Enemies  from  without  beset 
century      ^^  q^  every  side.     Northmen,  Magyars,  Saracens,  fell 
upon  it  with  eager  ferocity,  and  in  the  ninth  century, 
as  in  the  sixth,  the  Teutonic  system  of  equal  division 
of  inheritance  proved  fatal  to  all  hope  of  united  resist- 
ance.    But  the  partitions  of  the  ninth  century  differ 
from  those  of  the  sixth  in  this,  that  they  represent 
lines  of  division  destined  to  become  permanent.     The 
Romanised  West  was  severed  from  the  more  German 
East.     Italy  fell  away  from  the  North ;  Aquetaine  and 
Burgundy  became,  for  a  time,  partly  or  wholly  inde- 
pendent.    The  ninth  century  was  a  period  of  confusion 
and  of  immeasurable  suffering,  but  through  the  anarchy 
of  the  time  the  poUtical  life  of  Europe  began  to  shape 
itself  into  the  form  that  it  was  destined  to  retain  to  the 
end   of   the   Middle    Ages.     Serfdom   superseded    the 
older  relation  of  the  free  villagers  to  their  overlord  ;  the 
mihtary  system  of  Europe  began  to  be  territorial  instead 
of    personal;    great   fiefs    grew   up   under    dukes    and 
counts  almost  entirely  independent  of  royal  authority ; 
and  feudal  castles  rose  on  every  hill  on  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine  and  the  Seine. 

In  this  rough  age  the  Church  was  obliged  to  fight 


INTRODUCTION  7 

for  its  own  possessions  and  privileges,  and  while  its 
political  power  increased  its  religious  enthusiasm  de- 
clined ;  learning  was  kept  alive,  but  could  make  no  pro- 
gress in  days  of  distraction  and  danger ;  the  religion  of  the 
people  was  strangely  compounded  of  superstition  and  fear. 

As  the  century  drew  near  its  end  the  clouds  began  Revival  in 
to  lift.  The  Byzantine  Empire  weathered  the  storm  century 
of  Moslem  attack.  With  narrowed  frontiers,  hemmed 
in  by  Slavs  and  Saracens,  it  lived  on  as  a  civiHsing 
power  in  the  east.  In  the  west  also  the  tide  of  Sara- 
cen conquest  began  to  turn,  and  Southern  Italy  and 
Northorn  Spain  were  recovered  from  their  rule.  The 
Northmen,  established  in  the  north  of  England  and  in 
the  valley  of  the  Seine,  were  no  longer  mere  agents  of 
destruction;  a  little  later  they  began  to  rebuild  the 
churches  that  they  had  destroyed  and  re-establish  the 
order  that  they  had  disturbed.  Along  the  eastern 
frontiers  of  the  Empire  the  raids  of  the  Magyars  began 
to  be  checked. 

In  918  the  election  of  Henry  Duke  of  Saxony  to 
the  throne  of  Germany  brought  the  period  of  disintegra- 
tion in  central  Europe  to  an  end,  while  the  rise  of  the 
family  of  Robert  the  Strong  to  power  in  West  Franchia 
gave  promise  of  the  development  of  a  new  France,  with 
Paris  as  its  capital.  Another  century  was  destined  to 
pass  before  the  forces  of  disorder  and  disintegration 
were  for  a  time  worsted,  but  by  the  opening  of  the 
tenth  century  the  old  Europe — the  Europe  of  Zeno  and 
Theodoric  and  Clovis — had  dissolved,  and  the  new 
Europe — the  Europe  of  Otho  the  Great  and  Hildebrand 
and  Barbarossa — had  begun. 


The  Em- 
pire and 
the  Teu- 
tons 


CHAPTEK  II 


THE  EMPIRE  IN  476 


TN  the  year  476  the  last  Emperor  in  the  west  was 
deposed,  and  the  Roman  provinces  in  the  west 
became  independent  Teutonic  kingdoms.  The  deposi- 
tion of  Romulus  Augustulus  marks  the  end  of  a  process 
of  change  that  had  been  going  on  for  nearly  three 
centuries.  At  the  end  of  the  second  century  the  northern 
boundaries  of  the  Empire  were  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube.  Beyond  these  rivers  lived  various  Teutonic 
tribes  with  whom  the  Roman  Emperors  carried  on  a 
desultory  war,  not  now  for  the  extension  of  the  frontiers, 
but  to  keep  back  the  barbarians  from  penetrating  into 
the  Empire.  The  last  Emperor  who  extended  the 
northern  frontier  of  the  Empire  was  Trajan,  who  at 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century  established  the 
province  of  Dacia  north  of  the  Danube.  Under  his 
successors,  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius,  the  Empire 
enjoyed  nearly  half  a  century  of  peace  and  good  govern- 
ment. But  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  (161-180) 
a  change  began.  The  Teutonic  peoples  had  already 
begun  to  find  their  way  into  the  Empire,  at  first  as 
slaves  in  Roman  households,  or  as  serfs  cultivating 
frontier  lands,  and  a  little  later  as  soldiers  in  the  Roman 
armies.     They  now  tried  to  break  through  the  frontiers, 

8 


10 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


not  in  isolated  companies  but  in  organised  tribes,  and 
Marcus  Aurelius  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
emperors  who  were  obliged  to  carry  on  a  constant 
defensive  war  to  hold  back  tribes  of  barbarians  that  were 
being  driven  from  behind  on  to  the  Koman  frontiers. 
In  the  course  of  this  long  contest  the  barbarians 
absorbed  a  good  deal  of  the  civilisation  and  culture  of 
Rome.  Many  of  them  enrolled  themselves  under  the 
standard  of  the  Empire,  and  did  loyal  service  against 
their  fellow-Teutons  across  the  borders. 

In  the  year  330  Constantine,  the  first  Christian 
Emperor,  established  a  new  capital  at  Byzantium,  which 
he  called  after  his  own  name,  Constantinople.  From 
this  time  there  were  generally  two  emperors,  one  ruling 
in  the  East  and  the  other  in  the  West. 
The  Goths  The  earliest  barbarians  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the 
Empire  were  the  Goths.  Early  in  the  third  century 
they  appeared  in  the  south  of  Eussia,  having  migrated 
from  the  north-west  of  Europe.  They  gradually  fell 
into  two  tribes,  the  Eastern,  or  Ostrogoths,  and  the 
Western,  or  Visigoths.  About  the  year  250  they  began 
to  move  southward  and  westward,  and  came  into  contact 
with  the  Empire.  Twenty  years  later  a  body  of  them 
settled  in  the  Roman  province  of  Dacia,  and  inflicted  a 
great  defeat  on  the  Emperor  Decius,  who  perished  in 
the  battle.  The  Emperor  Aurehan,  in  the  year  270, 
made  peace  with  them,  allowing  them  to  retain  Dacia. 
For  nearly  a  century  after  this  the  Goths  remained  at 
peace  with  the  Empire.  During  this  time  they  learned 
the  art  of  writing,  and  were  converted  to  the  Arian  form 
of  Christianity  by  the  efforts  of  the  great  missionary 


THE  EMPIRE  IN  476 


11 


bishop  Ulfilas.  The  fact  that  most  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  adopted  Arianism  ^  is  important  because  it  imposed 
a  barrier  of  separation  between  them  and  the  Roman 
peoples,  who  were  orthodox. 

In  the  year  376  the  Visigoths  of  Dacia  were  attacked 
by  a  vast  horde  of  Huns  from  Central  Asia,  and  after 
vainly  trying  to  withstand  them,  they  petitioned  the 
Emperor  for  leave  to  cross  the  Danube  and  settle  in  the 
Empire.  Valens  allowed  them  to  do  so,  but  his  impohtic 
treatment  of  them  led  to  hostilities,  and  to  his  defeat 
and  death  at  the  battle  of  Adrianople  in  378.  His 
successor,  Theodosius,  made  peace  with  them,  but  after 
his  death  they  began  to  ravage  the  Empire,  and  finally, 
under  their  great  king,  Alaric,  they  poured  into  Italy, 
besieged  and  sacked  Rome,  and  then,  after  the  death  of 
Alaric,  settled  in  Southern  Gaul,  where  a  body  of  Ostro- 
goths joined  them  in  473.  They  gradually  extended 
their  conquests  into  Spain,  whence  they  drove  out  an- 
other Teutonic  tribe,  the  Vandals. 

The  Vandals  had  for  a  long  time  been  one  of  the  The 
leading  tribes  of  Germany.  They  had  been  driven  South  *"  *  ^ 
by  the  Goths  about  the  year  330  and  had  settled  in 
Pannonia.  About  the  year  400  they  had  marched  with 
allies  of  Alan  and  Suevic  race  into  Gaul,  and  thence, 
driven  perhaps  by  the  Franks,  into  Spain.  When  the 
Visigoths  began  to  advance  into    Spain  the   Vandals, 

^  Arius  was  a  priest  of  Alexandria,  who  early  in  the  fourth  century 
taught  certain  doctrines  about  the  Person  of  our  Lord  that  were  declared 
at  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  in  325,  to  be  erroneous.  He  and  all  who  agreed 
with  him  were  excommunicated,  and  after  a  struggle  of  nearly  a  century, 
in  which  Athanasius  was  the  chief  leader  of  the  orthodox  party,  the 
Empire  declared  for  the  Nicene  view. 


TTTK    TTMDTT?!?    TXT    A'TH 


1Q 


12 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  EMPIRE  IN  476 


13 


The  Bur- 
gundians 


The 
Franks 


Italy 


invited  by  a  treacherous  Eoman  governor,  crossed  to 
North  Africa,  where,  under  their  king,  Genseric  (or 
Gaiseric),  they  ravaged  the  whole  province  with  merci- 
less cruelty.  After  the  capture  of  Carthage,  in  439,  the 
Vandals  established  themselves  as  the  ruling  race,  and 
as  they  were  Arians  they  persecuted  the  Roman 
Christians  of  North  Africa.  Under  Genseric  they  also 
became  the  pirate-masters  of  the  Mediterranean,  and 
ravaged  the  coasts  of  Italy,  even  sacking  Rome  itself  in 
455. 

Another  Teutonic  kingdom  set  up  at  this  time  was 
that  of  the  Burgundians,  who  under  their  king,  Gundo- 
bad,  established  themselves  in  the  valleys  of  the  Rhone 
and  Saone  about  the  year  443. 

Farther  North,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  lay  the 
kingdom  of  the  Franks,  the  latest  of  the  great  Teutonic 
peoples  to  enter  the  Empire.  Between  these  two  Teu- 
tonic kingdoms  lay  a  semi-independent  Roman  province 
with  its  capital  at  Soissons,  ruled  over  by  a  Roman 
general,  ^Egidius.  On  his  death,  in  464,  his  son  Syagrius 
succeeded. 

Italy  had  been,  ever  since  410,  the  spoil  of  contending 
chieftains,  who  set  up  and  deposed  puppet  emperors 
as  they  pleased.  The  last  of  these  puppet  emperors, 
a  boy  of  about  fourteen,  was  ruling  in  Rome  in  476, 
under  the  protection  of  his  father,  Orestes.  In  this 
year  a  dispute  between  Orestes  and  his  barbarian 
followers  about  the  allocation  of  lands  led  to  a  revolt, 
and  the  soldiers  elected  a  Herule  officer,  Odoacer  (or 
Odovakar),  as  their  chief.  Orestes  took  refuge  in  Pavia, 
but  was  soon  captured  and  beheaded.     His  little  son, 


who  fell  into  the  hands  of  Odoacer,  was  spared  by  the 
conqueror,  and  allowed  to  retire  to  a  palace  near  Naples 
with  a  large  pension  for  his  maintenance.  Of  him  we 
hear  no  more. 

The  year  that  followed  the  accession  of  Odoacer  was 
marked  by  two  events  of  importance.  The  first  of  these 
was  the  death  of  the  old  pirate  chief  Genseric  the 
Vandal.  With  him  passed  away  the  greatness  of  the 
Vandal  kingdom,  which  declined  steadily  for  half  a 
century,  till  it  fell  once  more  under  the  sway  of  the 
Empire.  The  other  event  was  the  arrival  at  Constanti- 
nople of  an  embassy  from  the  Senate  of  Rome,  who 
came  to  inform  Zeno,  the  Emperor  now  ruling  in  the 
East,  that  **  they  did  not  need  a  separate  Emperor,  but 
that  Zeno  himself  as  sole  Emperor  would  suffice  for  both 
ends  of  the  earth ;  that  Odoacer,  a  prudent  statesman 
and  brave  warrior,  had  been  chosen  to  defend  their 
interests,  and  that  they  requested  Zeno  to  bestow  on 
him  the  dignity  of  Patrician  and  entrust  to  his  care  the 
Diocese  of  Italy  ". 

To  this  request  Zeno  assented  and  Odoacer,  already 
virtually  the  independent  sovereign  of  Italy,  now  became, 
in  name,  the  Imperial  viceroy  in  the  ''  Diocese  of  Italy  ". 
But  though  the  actual  authority  exercised  by  the 
Emperor  was  little  more  than  nominal,  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Empire  in  the  West  was 
regarded  as  ended.  The  idea  of  the  Roman  Empire 
had  taken  such  hold  of  the  imaginations  of  men  that 
it  was  not  regarded  as  possible  that  it  could  end.  It 
lived  on  as  an  idea  through  centuries  of  contest  and 
confusion,  till  the  time  came  for  an  attempt  to  be  made. 


14 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  EMPIRE  IN  476 


15 


The  Em- 
pire in  the 
East 


% 


Reign  of 

Zeno, 

474-91 


by  the  coronation  of  Charles  the  Great,  to  give  the  idea 
once  more  an  outward  expression. 

The  mention  of  Zeno  takes  us  from  the  Western 
Empire  to  the  east.  While  the  Empire  in  the  west 
had  been  slowly  crumbling  into  a  group  of  independent 
Teutonic  kingdoms,  the  Empire  in  the  east  had  been 
successfully  resisting  the  assaults  of  the  barbarians. 
The  great  city  of  Constantinople  was  impregnable  to 
assault  on  the  land  side,  and  could  not  be  successfully 
starved  into  surrender  while  the  Empire  retained  the 
command  of  the  sea.  The  great  enemy  of  the  Empire 
in  the  east  had  been  the  Persian  Empire,  but  in  the 
fifth  century  Persia  was  not  able  to  do  more  than  carry 
on  a  frontier  war  at  intervals.  Though  the  Empire  had 
lost  its  western  provinces,  the  wealth  of  the  provinces 
of  what  we  now  call  Asia  Minor  furnished  the  em- 
perors with  adequate  resources  till  they  became  im- 
poverished by  maladministration  and  war. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  a  barbarian  ad- 
venturer, Aspar,  occupied  at  Constantinople  a  position 
not  unlike  that  of  Orestes  or  Odoacer  in  Italy.  In  457 
he  raised  Leo,  an  Isaurian  ^  official  of  the  Court,  to  the 
Imperial  throne.  Leo  repaid  his  benefactor  by  procuring 
his  assassination  a  few  years  later.  On  Leo's  death,  in 
474,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son-in-law  and  fellow- 
countryman  Tarasicodissa,  who  adopted  the  name  of 
Zeno. 

Like  our  English  Ethelred  the  Unready,  Zeno  is 
credited  with  adopting  the  cowardly  policy  of  buying 

1  Isauria  is  the  mountainous  district  on  the  north  of  Mount  Taurus 
between  Cilicia  and  Phrygia. 


off  the  enemies  of  the  Empire.  Though  he  seems  to 
have  been  rather  repulsive  in  personal  character,  he 
was  not  without  ability  as  a  ruler.  He  had  constantly 
to  contend  with  attempts  to  set  rival  claimants  on  the 
throne,  but,  partly  by  good  luck  and  partly  by  the 
unscrupulous  cunning  and  cruelty  that  became  from 
this  time  a  characteristic  of  the  Eastern  Court,  he 
succeeded  in  retaining  the  throne  till  his  death  in  491. 

The  history  of  Constantinople  during  this  period  is 
chiefly  the  record  of  religious  controversies,  in  which 
the  people  of  the  city  took  sides  with  great  vigour. 
The  two  chief  factions  in  the  city,  adopting  the  colours 
of  the  Circus  races,  called  themselves  the  **  blues  "  and 
the  ''greens"— the  former  being  the  champions  of 
orthodoxy,  the  latter  of  the  Monophysite  i  heresy. 

Under  Anastasius,  who  succeeded  on  the  death  of 
Zeno,  these  factions  became  more  aggressive,  while  a 
war  with  Persia,  and  inroads  of  Slavs  and  Bulgarians 
from  across  the  Danube,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
Empire. 

1  The  Monophysites  held  that  Our  Lord  had  only  one  nature,  the  human 
nature  being  absorbed  in  the  Divine. 


14 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  EMPIRE  IN  476 


15 


The  Em- 
pire in  the 
East 


Reign  of 

Zeno, 

474-91 


by  the  coronation  of  Charles  the  Great,  to  give  the  idea 
once  more  an  outward  expression. 

The  mention  of  Zeno  takes  us  from  the  Western 
Empire  to  the  east.  While  the  Empire  in  the  west 
had  been  slowly  crumbling  into  a  group  of  independent 
Teutonic  kingdoms,  the  Empire  in  the  east  had  been 
successfully  resisting  the  assaults  of  the  barbarians. 
The  great  city  of  Constantinople  was  impregnable  to 
assault  on  the  land  side,  and  could  not  be  successfully 
starved  into  surrender  while  the  Empire  retained  the 
command  of  the  sea.  The  great  enemy  of  the  Empire 
in  the  east  had  been  the  Persian  Empire,  but  in  the 
fifth  century  Persia  was  not  able  to  do  more  than  carry 
on  a  frontier  war  at  intervals.  Though  the  Empire  had 
lost  its  western  provinces,  the  wealth  of  the  provinces 
of  what  we  now  call  Asia  Minor  furnished  the  em- 
perors with  adequate  resources  till  they  became  im- 
poverished by  maladministration  and  war. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  a  barbarian  ad- 
venturer, Aspar,  occupied  at  Constantinople  a  position 
not  unlike  that  of  Orestes  or  Odoacer  in  Italy.  In  457 
he  raised  Leo,  an  Isaurian  ^  official  of  the  Court,  to  the 
Imperial  throne.  Leo  repaid  his  benefactor  by  procuring 
his  assassination  a  few  years  later.  On  Leo's  death,  in 
474,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son-in-law  and  fellow- 
countryman  Tarasicodissa,  who  adopted  the  name  of 
Zeno. 

Like  our  English  Ethelred  the  Unready,  Zeno  is 
credited  with  adopting  the  cowardly  policy  of  buying 

^  Isauria  is  the  mountainous  district  on  the  north  of  Mount  Taurus 
between  Cilicia  and  Phrygia. 


off  the  enemies  of  the  Empire.  Though  he  seems  to 
have  been  rather  repulsive  in  personal  character,  he 
was  not  without  ability  as  a  ruler.  He  had  constantly 
to  contend  with  attempts  to  set  rival  claimants  on  the 
throne,  but,  partly  by  good  luck  and  partly  by  the 
unscrupulous  cunning  and  cruelty  that  became  from 
this  time  a  characteristic  of  the  Eastern  Court,  he 
succeeded  in  retaining  the  throne  till  his  death  in  491. 

The  history  of  Constantinople  during  this  period  is 
chiefly  the  record  of  religious  controversies,  in  which 
the  people  of  the  city  took  sides  with  great  vigour. 
The  two  chief  factions  in  the  city,  adopting  the  colours 
of  the  Circus  races,  called  themselves  the  ''  blues  "  and 
the  "greens" — the  former  being  the  champions  of 
orthodoxy,  the  latter  of  the  Monophysite  ^  heresy. 

Under  Anastasius,  who  succeeded  on  the  death  of 
Zeno,  these  factions  became  more  aggressive,  while  a 
war  with  Persia,  and  inroads  of  Slavs  and  Bulgarians 
from  across  the  Danube,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
Empire. 

1  The  Monophysites  held  that  Our  Lord  had  only  one  nature,  the  human 
nature  being  absorbed  in  the  Divine. 


ilJ 


THE  RISE  OF  THEODORIC 


17 


CHAPTEE   III 

THE  RISE   OF   THEODORIC 

THE  Ostrogoths,  who  had  remained  in  the  district 
north  of  the  Black  Sea,  while  their  Visigothic 
brethren  moved  southwards,  fell  in  the  fifth  century 
under  the  yoke  of  the  Huns,  whom  they  served  for 
eighty  years,  till  the  death  of  the  great  Hunnish  chief 
Attila  in  454.  Then  they  rose  in  rebellion,  in  alliance 
with  the  Gepidse  and  other  subject  nations,  and  broke  the 
power  of  the  Huns  in  a  great  battle  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Netad  (probably  in  Hungary,  the  situation  is  not 
known).  Moving  southwards,  they  occupied  the  pro- 
vince of  Pannonia,  apparently  by  friendly  arrangement 
with  the  Koman  authorities. 

The  Ostrogoths  were  at  this  time  ruled  by  three 
brothers,  descendants  of  the  old  Amal  family,  Walamir, 
Theudemir  and  Widemir.  In  454,  on  the  very  day 
on  which  Walamir  repulsed  a  sudden  attack  of  the  Huns 
and  gained  a  great  victory,  a  son  was  born  to  his  brother 
Theudemir,  and  named  Theuda-reiks,  the  **  ruler  of  the 
people  "—a  name  changed  by  the  Eoman  chroniclers  to 

Theodoric. 
Theodoric       When  Theodoric  was  seven  years  old  a  war  broke 
ISfnopieOut  between  the  Goths  and  the  Empire,  owing  to  an 

attempt  of  the  Emperor  to  withhold  the  usual  subsidies, 


Birth  of 
Theodoric 


After  the  Goths  had  ravaged  Moesia  the  Emperor 
agreed  to  renew  the  tribute  on  condition  that  the  Gotha 
confined  their  ravages  to  the  lands  north  of  the  Danube. 
Theudemir  was  obliged  to  surrender  his  little  son  as  a 
hostage  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  treaty,  and  so  it  came 
to  pass  that  Theodoric  spent  ten  years  at  the  Court  of 
Constantinople,  where  the  Emperor  Leo  became  warmly 
attached  to  him. 

It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  influence  on  Theo- 
doric's  life  of  this  long  residence  at  the  Imperial  Court. 
To  realise  it  we  must  imagine  the  son  of  an  Indian 
frontier  chief  living  from  the  age  of  seven  to  seventeen 
at  the  British  Court,  watching  the  administration  of 
justice,  the  organisation  of  war  and  commerce,  the 
whole  system  of  British  life. 

At  the  time  of  Theodoric 's  stay  there,  Constantinople 
was  at  the  height  of  its  splendour — the  most  magnifi- 
cent city  of  the  world.  There  Theodoric  could  see  men 
of  every  nation  of  the  earth,  bound  together  by  subjection 
to  the  majestic  Koman  law,  laying  aside  their  turbulent 
independence  in  the  realisation  of  a  common  citizenship. 
It  was  at  Constantinople  that  Theodoric  learnt  those 
lessons  of  the  value  of  orderly  rule  and  legal  right  that 
he  afterwards  strove  so  hard  to  teach  to  his  Italian 
subjects. 

When,  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  Theodoric  came  home,  Theodoric 

he  found  the  Goths  at  war  with  the  neighbouring  nation  [heToths 

of  the  Suevi,  on  whom  they  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat 

about  the  year  470.     Theodoric  celebrated  his  return 

by  leading  an  expedition  against  the  Sarmatians,  from 

whose  king,  Babai,  he  wrested  the  city  of  Singidunum 
2 


I 


I 


18  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

(Belgrade),  which  lies  at  the  junction  of  the  Save  and 

the  Danube. 

A  tribe  like  the  Goths,  who  subsisted  largely  on 
plunder,  and  whose  Pannonian  camping-ground  was 
probably  exhausted  of  supplies,  could  not  remain  for 
long  at  peace.  **  From  the  diminution  of  the  spoils  of 
the  neighbouring  nations,"  says  Jordanes,  the  historian 
of  the  Goths,  ''  the  Goths  began  to  lack  food  and  cloth- 
ing, and  to  those  men  to  whom  war  had  long  furnished 
all  their  sustenance  peace  began  to  be  odious,  and  all 
the  Goths  with  loud  shouts  approached  their  king, 
Theudemir,  praying  him  to  lead  his  army  whither  he 
would,  but  to  lead  it  forth  to  war." 

The  Gothic  host  divided  into  two  armies,  one  of 
which  followed  Widemir  westwards  to  attack  Rome, 
while  the  other  marched  south  under  Theudemir  and 
Theodoric  to  ravage  Macedonia.  Of  Widemir's  expedi- 
tion little  need  be  said.  He  died  in  Italy  without 
achieving  any  important  success,  and  his  son  led  his 
host  into  Gaul,  where  it  was  absorbed  in  the  Visigothic 
kingdom  of  Southern  Gaul. 

Meanwhile  Theudemir  plundered  Macedonia  and 
laid  siege  to  Thessalonica.  Peace  was  then  made  with 
Constantinople,  the  Goths  being  allowed  to  settle  in  six 
towns  of  Macedonia  and  the  country  around  them. 
Such  an  arrangement  could  not  last  long.  Crowded 
into  a  little  corner  of  Macedonia,  the  Goths  would  be 
certain  to  resume,  before  long,  their  habits  of  wander- 
ing and  plunder. 

About  474  Theudemir  died,  and  his  son  succeeded  as 
King  of  the  Ostrogoths.     Soon  after,  Theodoric's  friend, 


THE  RISE  OF  THEODORIC 


19 


the  Emperor  Leo,  died  at  Constantinople,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  little  grandchild  Leo,  whose  death  a  few 
months  later  left  Zeno  the  Isaurian  as  sole  Emperor. 

The  history  of  the  next  fourteen  years  of  the  life  of 
Theodoric  is  complicated  by  the  presence  on  the  scene  Theodoric, 
of  another  Theodoric,  a  Gothic  chief  related  by  marriage  ^^arLs 
with  the  barbarian  Aspar  who  had  for  years  played  the 
part  of  king-maker  at  Constantinople,  till  his  murder  by 
Leo  in  471.     This  Theodoric,  son  of  Triarius,  first  be- 
comes important  about  473,  when  he  wrested  a  treaty 
from  Leo  by  which  he  was  to  enjoy  the  title  of  Magister 
Equitum  et  Feditum,  and  receive  a  yearly  subsidy  of 
2,000  lb.  of  gold  in  return  for  the  services  of  himself 
and  his  warriors.     Soon  after  the  accession  of  Zeno  a 
pretender,  Basiliscus,  rose  in  revolt,  supported  by  Theo- 
doric, son  of  Triarius,  but  after  nearly  two  years  of  exile 
Zeno  returned  to  Constantinople  and  ousted  his  rival, 
who  was  sent  away  to  die  of  hunger  in  a  fortress  of 
Cappadocia.     Theodoric  the  Amal,  who  had  supported 
the  cause  of  Zeno,  now  became  Patrician  and  Master 
of  the  Soldiery,  titles  of  great  honour  in  the  Empire. 
War  followed  between  the  two  Theodorics,  but  when 
their  armies  came  face  to  face  they  fraternised  instead 
of  fighting,  and  the  two  chiefs  made  common   cause 
against  the  Emperor.     After  various   negotiations  too 
tedious  to  relate,  Zeno  succeeded  in  detaching  Theodoric, 
son  of  Triarius,  from  his  alliance  with  the  Amal  chief, 
and  Theodoric  the  Amal  led  his  followers  to  another 
raid  into  Macedonia,  which  they  had  abandoned  some 
years  before  for  the  lands  at  the  mouth  of  the  Danube. 
From   Macedonia    the   Gothic   host    passed   over   the 


1 1 


lili 

ill  II 

pi 


20 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THEODORIG 


21 


mountains  into  Epirus,  then  back  again  into  the  Balkan 

district. 
Wander-        It  would  be  too  long  and  too  unprofitable  a  task  to 
^8^f  •    follow  Theodoric   through   the   wanderings  and   wars 
""  °"°  of  the  years  that  followed.     In  481  his  namesake  and 
rival  died,  and  soon  after  the  remnant  of  his  followers 
joined  the  rest  of  the  Goths  under  the  standard  of  the 
Amal   chief.     For   some   years   after  this   the   Goths 
wandered  aimlessly  about  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire, 
sometimes  at  peace  with  the  Emperor,  sometimes  ravag- 
ing his  territories.     The  supreme  problem  was  how  to 
find   food   for  the  nation  in  lands  gradually  growmg 
depopulated  by  war  and  famine.     The  host  moved  to 
and  fro  with  its  women  and  children  in  the  waggons 
that  followed  the  army.    It  was  a  gigantic  gipsy  caravan 
—this  Gothic  nation  on  the  march,  hungry,  fierce  and 

During  all  this  time  Odoacer  was  ruling  in  Italy.     His 
relations  with  the  Emperor  were  at  first  friendly,  but 
the  conquest  of  Dalmatia,  which  brought  the  frontiers 
of  the  Italian  kingdom  further  eastwards,  and  still  more, 
help  given  by  Odoacer  to  an  Imperial  general,  Illus,  who 
rose  in  unsuccessful  insurrection  against  Zeno,  led  to 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  the  Italian  king  and 
the  Empire.     Zeno's  first  step  was  to  encourage  the 
King  of  the  Eugians,  a  powerful  tribe  on  the  Danube, 
to  attack  Odoacer.     The  attack  failed,  and  the  defeated 
Eugian  king,  Frederick,  fled  to  the  camp  of  Theodoric. 
Zeno  then  turned  to  Theodoric,  who  was  in  nowise 
unwiUing  to  lead  his  people  into  the  fertile  lands  of  Italy. 
So  in  the  autumn  of  498  the  Goths  set  out  on  this  new 


Theodoric 
in  Italy 


adventure.     They  fought  their  way  along  the  highlands 
of  Pannonia  and  Noricum,  and  closed  this  part  of  the 
expedition  with  a  great  battle  against  the  Gepidse— a 
battle  that    broke  the  power  of  that   nation  and  re- 
plenished the  waggons  of  the  Goths  with  great  stores 
of  provisions.     They  descended  without  resistance  into 
the  plains  of  Italy,  to  find  Odoacer  and  his  army  drawn 
up  to  meet  them  near  Aquileia.     They  scattered  his 
army  in  flight  and  took  possession  of  the  whole  of  North- 
eastern Italy  as  far  as  the  Adige,  Odoacer  falling  back 
on  Verona,  where  he  gathered  what  was  left  of  his 
army  into  an  entrenched  camp.     After  a  terrific  contest 
the  Gothic  warriors,  led  by  Theodoric  in  person,  broke 
the  forces  of  Odoacer  and  drove  him  back  to  Eavenna 
where,  among  the  marshes,  the  defeated  King  made  his 
last  stand.     The  siege  of  Ravenna  went  on  for  more 
than  three  years,  and  in  the  meanwhile  Theodoric  had 
to  fight  more  than  one  enemy  to  retain  his  hold  over 
Northern  Italy. 

The  first  of  these  enemies  was  Tufa,  who  had  been 
one  of  Odoacer's  chief  Heutenants  and  who  accepted, 
or  appeared  to  accept,  the  leadership  of  Theodoric.  80 
confident  was  Theodoric  in  his  fidehty  that  he  entrusted 
to  his  command  the  army  he  sent  to  attack  Eavenna. 
Like  Marshal  Ney,  Tufa's  new  loyalty  could  not  stand 
the  strain  of  immediate  contact  with  his  old  leader,  and, 
with  most  of  his  troops,  he  went  over  to  the  side  of 
Odoacer.  The  officers  who  refused  to  desert  Theodoric 
were  surrendered  to  Odoacer,  who  ruthlessly  murdered 
them  all.  Perhaps  encouraged  by  Tufa's  treachery, 
Frederick,   the   Eugian   king,    who   had    followed   the 


K 


f 


Death  of 
Odoacer 


22  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

standards  of  Theodoric  into  Italy,  broke  with  his  leader 
and  began  to  ravage  Italy  on  his  own  account.  For  a 
time  things  looked  black  for  Theodoric,  but  the  allies 
soon  quarrelled,  and  Tufa  was  slain  in  a  battle  near 
Verona.  Frederick  threw  himself  into  Pavia,  which  he 
held  for  two  years.     His  fate  we  do  not  know. 

Then  from  across  the  Alps,  a  fresh  antagonist 
appeared  to  challenge  the  right  of  the  Ostrogoths  to 
their  new  kingdom.  Gundobad,  King  of  the  Bur- 
gundians,  marched  into  Italy,  nominally  as  the  ally  of 
Odoacer  Near  Milan,  Theodoric,  with  the  help  of  the 
Visigothic  king,  Alaric  II.,  met  and  vanquished  the 
coalition  and  drove  Odoacer  back  to  Kavenna. 

The  siege  of  Ravenna  now  went  on  without  inter- 
ruption, and  as  Theodoric  was  able  to  control  the 
harbour  by  means  of  his  fleet  the  city  was  soon  in  dire 

At  last  Odoacer  was  obliged  to  own  himself  beaten, 
and  a  treaty  was  made  between  the  two  rival  kings,  by 
which   they   were   to   rule   Italy  together.      Probably 
neither  party  intended   to   hold   to  so   impossible   an 
arrangement,  and  the  chroniclers  who  desire  to  justify 
Theodoric  tell  us  that  Odoacer  was  plotting  against  the 
life  of  his  successful  rival.     Theodoric  may  have  be- 
lieved that  this  was  so,  but  nothing  can  excuse  the  act 
that  followed  and  which  remains  the  greatest  blot  on 
the   character   of  the  great   Ostrogoth.     Inviting   his 
fallen   rival   to  a   banquet   on    15th   March,    493,   he 
entrusted  to  some  soldiers,  hidden  in  an  alcove,  the 
task  of   murdering  him.     When  their  courage  failed 
at  the  critical  moment,  Theodoric  himself  struck  down 


THE  RISE  OF  THEODORIC 


23 


the  king  with  one  tremendous  stroke,  shouting,  as  he 
smote,  "  This  is  what  you  did  to  my  friends  ". 

Thus,  by  one  foul  deed,  Theodoric  rid  himself  of  his 
last  rival,  and  stood  the  unchallenged  master  of  the 
Italy  that  he  had  won.  After  the  long  strife  of  contend- 
ing chiefs  the  possibility  of  a  new  Empire  in  the  West 
seemed  to  have  returned. 


if  i 


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M   ! 


24 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


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M 


CHAPTEK  IV 

THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 

'pHEODOEIC  was  about  forty  years  of  age  when  he 
began  to  reign  as  sole  king  in  Italy,  and  he 
reigned  there  for  rather  more  than  thirty  years.  After 
twenty  years  of  wandering  and  war,  the  Ostrogoths 
settled  down  to  thirty  years  of  almost  miinterrupted 
peace. 

It  was  no  easy  task  that  confronted  the  new  master 
of  Italy.  Not  only  had  he  to  repair  the  ravages  of  long 
years  of  desolating  strife,  he  had  also  to  train  Gothic 
and  Eoman  subjects  to  live  at  peace  together,  and, 
Arian  as  he  was,  to  win  the  support  of  the  Catholic 
clergy,  on  whose  goodwill  the  success  of  his  rule  must 
largely  depend.  That  he  succeeded  in  doing  both  these 
things  is  the  most  striking  evidence  of  his  greatness. 

Though  Theodoric  had  won  Italy  by  right  of  conquest,  Theodoric, 
he  tried  to  give  legal  sanction  to  his  rule.     He  seems  J^thstnd 
to  have  secured  the  confirmation  of  his  kingship  from  Romans 
his  Ostrogothic  followers ;  he  also  sent  to  the  Emperor 
at  Constantinople  for  the  ratification  of  his  title.    Zeno's 
death  in  491  delayed  the  negotiations,  and  it  was  not 
till  six  years  later  that  Anastasius  gave  a  vague  recog- 
nition to  Theodoric's  kingship.     As  king  of  the  Goths 
and  Komans   (for  that  was  probably  his  title)    Theo- 

25 


26  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

doric  was,  for  all  practical  purposes,  absolute  monarch 
of  Italy.  But  in  the  background  were  the  undefined 
claims  of  the  Emperor  to  supremacy,  destined  to  be 
reasserted  as  soon  as  death  had  removed  the  strong 
hand  of  the  Gothic  king  from  the  helm. 

The  recognition  of  his  position  by  the  Emperor  brought 
Theodorics strength   to   Theodoric's   rule,  because  it   commended 
tio?""'""that  rule  to  the  Eomans,  and  so  enabled  him  to  secure 
the  help  of  Koman   officials   in  the   difficult  work   of 
organising  the  kingdom.    The  vigorous  initiative  that  the 
Goths  had  learnt  in  their  long  fight  for  subsistence  was 
now  linked  with  the  traditions  of  authority  and  ordered 
rule  that  had  lasted  on  in  Italy  through  all  the  confused 
strife  of  the  last  hundred  years.     Under  strong  and 
good  government  Italy  began  to  recover  her  prosperity. 
Trade  developed,  agriculture  revived,  so  that  Italy  was 
able  to  export  corn  instead  of  importing  it.     At  Eome 
and  at  Eavenna,  which  Theodoric  made  his  capital,  great 
aqueducts  were  made  to  supply  fresh  water.    Eoads  were 
improved,  and  the  great  cities  of  Italy  were  once  more 
adorned  with  works  of  art  and  defended  by  strong  walls. 
All  this  work  of  administration  went  on  under  the 
eye  of   Theodoric,  who  had   something  of  Napoleon's 
marvellous    power   of   supervising    all    the    details    of 
administration.      But  he   was  also  served  by  a  well- 
organised  body  of   officials,  from   the  great  officers  of 
State,  the  "  Illustres,"  as  they  were  called,  down  to  the 
junior  clerks,  poHcemen  and  others  who  stood  on  the 
bottom  rung  of  the  ladder,  up  which  they  might  hope 
to  climb  to  higher  office. 

Of  Theodoric's  officers  of  State,  the  best  known  is 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


27 


Magnus  Aurelius  Cassiodorus.  Sprung  from  an  oldcassio- 
official  family,  Cassiodorus  entered  public  life  under '^'^'''^ 
his  father,  who  was  Praetorian  Prefect,  about  the  year 
500.  He  is  said  to  have  won  the  favour  of  Theodoric  by 
an  eloquent  oration  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit 
of  the  King  to  Eome,  and  was  appointed  as  Quaestor,  or 
PubHc  Orator.  He  acted  for  years  as  the  King's  secre- 
tary, and  his  legal  training  and  knowledge  of  Latin 
literature  must  have  made  him  a  useful  adviser.  He 
wrote  a  history  of  the  Goths,  in  twelve  books,  that  has 
perished,  and  collected  his  letters  and  State  papers  into 
twelve  books  of  Vari(e,  which  remain  and  form  one  of 
the  most  valuable  sources  of  information  for  the  reign  of 
Theodoric.  He  survived  his  master,  and  became  Prae- 
torian Prefect  under  his  successor  in  533.  After  the 
fall  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  he  retired  to  the  monastery 
of  Viviers,  which  he  founded,  and  there  we  lose  sight  of 
him. 

During  the  greater  part  of  Theodoric's  reign  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  kingdom  provide  little  material  for 
the  chroniclers.  Eight  years  after  his  accession  he  paid 
his  first  and  only  visit  to  Eome,  where  he  stayed  for  six 
months,  and  provided  splendid  entertainments  for  the 
pleasure-loving  people.  But  his  capital  was  not  Eome 
but  Eavenna.  Here  he  could  better  keep  in  touch  with 
his  Gothic  followers,  who  settled  chiefly  in  Northern 
Italy,  and  was  also  within  easy  reach  of  the  northern 
frontier  in  case  the  need  arose  for  meeting  a  hostile 
invasion. 

The  Gothic  warriors  were  allotted  a  third  of  the  lands  Goths  and 
of    Italy— for    the   most    part    the   same    lands    that^"""*"" 


28 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


29 


I    '4 


Relations 
with 
1.  The 
Church 


2.  The 

Visigoths 


Odoacer's  followers  had  held.  Liberius,  an  old  officer 
of  Odoacer,  was  appointed  by  Theodoric  to  arrange  the 
allotment  of  lands.  The  Goths  lived  apparently  in  small 
groups,  not  mixing  much  with  the  native  Italians,  with 
whom,  however,  their  relations  seem  to  have  been  quite 
friendly.  Special  officers— (7omi<6S  Goi^orum— admin- 
istered Gothic  law  in  all  cases  between  Goths.  Where 
any  case  arose  between  a  Goth  and  a  Koman  a  Boman 
lawyer  was  associated  with  the  Gothic  officer  in  deciding 
it.  Theodoric's  Eoman  subjects  were  under  Koman  law 
administered  by  Eoman  officials. 

Though  Theodoric  was  an  Arian,  he  remained,  till 
near  the  end  of  his  reign,  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
Catholic  clergy.  Soon  after  his  accession  he  was  called  to 
decide  between  two  rival  candidates  for  the  Papacy,  and 
on  his  visit  to  Eome  he  gave  splendid  gifts  to  the  shrine 
of  St.  Peter.  The  same  spirit  of  toleration  led  him  to 
take  the  Jews  under  his  protection,  and  when,  near  the 
end  of  his  Hfe,  the  synagogues  at  Eome  and  Eavenna  were 
burnt  in  a  riot,  he  insisted  on  the  punishment  of  the 
rioters  and  the  reconstruction  of  the  buildings. 

The  external  affairs  of  the  reign  turn  around  Theo- 
doric's relations  with  the  Teutonic  kingdoms  of  the  West 
and  with  the  Empire.  Of  the  kingdoms  beyond  the  Alps, 
the  largest  and  most  important,  at  the  time  of  Theo- 
doric's accession,  was  the  Visigothic  kingdom  that  in- 
cluded Southern  France  and  most  of  Spain.  The  ruler 
of  this  kingdom  was  Alaric  II.,  who  succeeded  to  the 
throne  in  485.  Though  an  Arian,  he  tried,  like  Theo- 
doric, to  propitiate  the  CathoHc  clergy  in  his  dominions. 
With  Theodoric  the  Visigoths  remained  on  terms  of 


close  alliance,  and  Alaric  married  a  daughter  of  the 
Ostrogothic  king.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  series 
of  matrimonial  alliances  between  the  house  of  Theodoric 
and  the  neighbouring  rulers.  His  sister,  Amalafrida, 
married  Thrasamund,  the  Vandal  king  of  North  Africa, 
and  one  of  his  daughters  was  given  in  marriage  to 
Sigismund,  son  of  the  Burgundian  king,  Gundobad. 
Theodoric  himself  married  Augofleda,  sister  of  Clovis, 
the  king  of  the  Franks. 

The  story  of  the  rise  of  Clovis  will  be  told  in  another  3.  The 
chapter.     It  only  concerns  us  now  in  its  influence  on  ^'*"^' 
the  policy   of   Theodoric.      At   first   he  attempted   to 
maintain  friendly  relations  with  the  Frankish  king,  but 
when  Clovis  began  to  prepare  for  an  attack  on  his  ally, 
the  king  of  the  Visigoths,  he  remonstrated  in  vain.    In 
the  war  that  followed   Alaric  was  defeated  and  slain 
before  Theodoric's  army  arrived  to  help  him.      Some 
years  of  war  followed  between  Theodoric  and  Clovis, 
ending  in  a  severe  defeat  of  Clovis  by  the  Ostrogoths.' 
Theodoric  and  the  Frankish  king  then  agreed  to  parti- 
tion the  dominions   of  Alaric,  Clovis  taking   most   of 
Southern  Gaul  and  Theodoric  Provence. 

Then  Spain,  the  one  remaining  Visigothic  province,  4.  Spain 
becomes  for  a  time  the  centre  of  Theodoric's  policy. 
On  the  death  of  Alaric  an  illegitimate  son,  Gesalic,  was 
proclaimed  as  king  by  some  of  the  Visigoths.  He  was 
defeated  by  the  Burgundians  and  fled  to  Carthage, 
where  Thrasamund  espoused  his  cause  for  a  time,  till 
Theodoric's  protests  obliged  him  to  dismiss  the  fugitive. 
Ultimately,  Gesalic  was  captured  in  Gaul  by  Theodoric's 
soldiers  and  put  to  death.     There  remained  only  one 


30 


THE  DAWk  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


31 


5.  The 

Empire 


heir  of  the  house  of  Alaric,  his  little  son  Amalaric, 
grandson  of  Theodoric.  With  the  consent  of  the 
Visigoths  Theodoric  acted  as  regent  in  Spain  for  the 
young  king,  and  thus  practically  added  Spain  to  his 
other  dominions. 

We   turn   now   to    Theodoric's    relations   with   the 
Empire.     On  the  death  of  Zeno,  Anastasius  succeeded 
as  Emperor,  and  though  over  sixty  at  the  time  of  his  ac- 
cession reigned  for  twenty-five  years  in  Constantinople. 
The  theological  controversies  in  which  he  was  involved 
during  the  greater  part  of  his  reign,  and  in  which  he 
took  the  side  that  lost  for  him  the  support  and  sympathy 
of  the  Popes,  tended  to  sever  the  East  from  the  West. 
A  desultory   war  that  broke  out  between   the  Gothic 
kingdom  and  the  Empire,  in  consequence  of  Theodoric's 
annexation  of  Sirmium,  in  Illyria,  ended  in  509,  and 
while  Anastasius   lived   friendly   relations  were  main- 
tained  between   the   two  Courts.     But   when    Justin 
succeeded  as  Emperor  and  became  reconciled  to  the 
Pope,  the  fear  that  the  Emperor  might  manifest  his 
orthodoxy  by  inaugurating  a  persecution  of  the  Arians 
in  the  east  led  to  friction  between  him  and  Theodoric. 
In  the  year  525,  when  this  policy  of  persecution  began, 
Theodoric  sent  Pope  John  I.  to  Constantinople  to  remon- 
strate with  the  Emperor.     The  Pope  was  accorded  a 
splendid  welcome  at  Constantinople,  and  officiated  at  a 
magnificent  coronation  of  the  new  Emperor.     How  far 
he  succeeded  in  winning  any  toleration  for  the  Arian 
subjects  of  the  Empire  is  not  clear;   what  is  clear  is 
that  the  result  of  the   visit  was   to   demonstrate   the 
alliance  between  Pope  and  Emperor  in  a  way   that 


Theodoric  never  intended.      When  John  returned  he 
found  the  King  passionately  indignant,  and  the  Pope 
was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  died  soon  after  (25th 
i  I       May,  526). 

The  closing  years  of  the  reign  of  Theodoric  are  a  Last  year 
rather  sad  contrast  to  the  prosperity  and  wise  govern-  dorTc'^"^" 
ment  of  the  earlier  time.  His  only  child  was  a  daughter, 
Amalasuentha,  and  about  the  year  515  Theodoric  married 
her  to  a  young  Goth  from  Spain,  Eutharic.  Eutharic 
was  a  strong  Arian,  and  his  influence  over  his  father-in- 
law  appears  to  have  led  him  to  adopt  a  less  friendly 
attitude  towards  his  Catholic  subjects  just  at  the  very 
time  when  the  Eastern  Court  was  inclined  to  press  more 
hardly  on  the  Arians.  The  effect  of  all  this  was  that 
the  good  relations  that  had  for  so  long  subsisted  between 
Theodoric  and  his  Roman  subjects  began  to  give  place 
to  an  attitude  of  mutual  suspicion. 

The  Chief  of  the  Senate  {Caput  Senatus)  at  thisBoethius 
time  was  Symmachus,  a  Roman  noble  of  illustrious 
ancestry,  great  wealth  and  high  reputation.  With  him 
was  associated  a  younger  man,  Boethius,  who  had  been 
placed  under  the  care  of  Symmachus  in  early  life  and  had 
married  his  daughter  Rusticiana.  Boethius  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  Theodoric,  and  in  522  his  two  little  sons 
were  made  consuls,  an  honour  that  Boethius  repaid  by 
a  great  oration  in  praise  of  the  king. 

But  now  Theodoric's  attitude  changed.  Throughout 
Western  Europe  the  Arian  cause  was  losing  ground, 
for  the  Frankish  kingdom  was  still  growing  and  the 
Burgundian  and  Vandal  kingdoms  had  passed  into  the 
hands   of   Catholic   rulers.     Just  at   this  juncture   an 


I!  i 


i' 


32  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

officer  of  Theodoric's  Court,  Cyprian,  who  held  a  position 
not  unlike  that  of  pubHc  prosecutor,  accused  a  Eoman 
noble  named  Albinus  of  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  Emperor.  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether 
Cyprian  was  acting  from  patriotic  or  personal  motives, 
but  his  accusation  was  strongly  resented  not  only  by 
Albinus  but  by  Boethius,  who  warmly  espoused  the 
cause  of  his  friend.  ''  Whatever  Albinus  did,"  he  said, 
**I  and  the  whole  Senate  of  Eome  did  the  same." 
Cyprian,  thus  challenged,  rephed  by  charging  Boethius 
with  treason  and  procuring  his  arrest. 

In  the  events  that   followed  there  is  much  that  is 
obscure.      The    exact   nature   of   the  charges  against 
Boethius  is  uncertain ;  what  is  certain  is  that  he  was 
not  accorded  a  fair  trial.     He  was  condemned  by  his 
fellow-senators  without  being  heard  in  his  own  defence, 
and  sentence  of  death  was  passed  against  him.     After 
some  months  in  prison  he  was  executed. 
The  Con.        The  name  of  Boethius  is  remembered  now,  not  only 
'phiioZ'hy^^  almost  the  last  great  Koman,  but  even  more  as  the 
'  '''^  '^  author  of  a  book  written  in  prison  during  the  last  few 
weeks  of  his  Hfe,  the  famous  Consolations  of  Philosophy. 
The  purpose  of  the  book,  which  is  in  prose,  with  poems 
interspersed  here  and  there,  is  to  explain  how,  after  the 
Muses  had  vainly  tried  to  comfort  the  prisoner.  Philo- 
sophy, appearing  in  the  guise  of   a  tall  and  beautiful 
woman,  came  to  him  and  spoke  of  the  vanity  of  human 
hopes,  and  the  satisfaction   to  be  found  in  resting  in 
God.     There  is  nothing  distinctively  Christian  in  the 
book,  though  Boethius  himself  was  a  Christian ;  it  is 
the  last  word  of  the  old  Stoic  world  of  Marcus  Aurelius 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


33 


and  Seneca.  As  a  text-book  of  philosophy  the  book 
became  one  of  the  most  cherished  possessions  of  the 
early  Middle  Ages ;  it  was  translated  into  English  by 
Alfred  the  Great  and  into  most  of  the  other  languages 
of  Europe. 

The  mission  of  Pope  John  followed  almost  immedi- Death  of 
ately  after  the  death  of  Boethius,  and  before  the  death  s"^'"^"""' 
of  the  Pope  Symmachus  had  been  accused  and  executed 
Theodonc  had  declared  war  on  his  Roman  subjects,  and 
It  is  hard  to  say  what  the  issue  of  the  contest  would 
have  been.     But  before  Theodoric  could  put  into  execu- 
tion an  edict  ordering  the  churches  throughout  Italy  to 
be  handed   over  to  the  Arians,  he  was  stricken  with 
mortal  disease,  and  died  on  30th  August,  526.      He 
IS  said  to  have  bitterly  lamented  on  his  death-bed  the 
acts  of  violence  that  had  stained  the  last  years  of  his 
life.     Many  historians  are  disposed  to  account  for  them 
by  the  theory  that  Theodoric  had  in  these  last  years 
become  partially  insane.     Certainly  it  is  not  easy,  on 
any  other  theory,  to  explain  the  extraordinary  transfor- 
mation in  his  character. 

Theodoric  was  buried  at  Ravenna,  where  his  tomb 
still  stands.  But  the  porphyry  vase  that  held  his  re- 
mains has  vanished  long  ago,  like  the  Gothic  kingdom 
that  he  tried  to  establish.  The  history  of  the  decline 
and  fall  of  that  kingdom  can  be  told  only  in  outline 

Eutharic  had  died  long  before  his  father-in-law,  and  Keign  of 
the  throne  passed  to  his  little  son  Athalaric,  for  whom,1,™"ih% 
Amalasuentha  acted  as  regent,  with  Cassiodorus  as  chief  ^26-34  ' 
adviser.     But   Amalasuentha,  whose  sympathies  were 
with  her  Roman  subjects  rather  than  with  the  ruder 


34 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


35 


Imperial 
interven- 
tion 


Gothic  warriors,  alienated  the  Goths  hy  attempting  to 
give  her  son  the  education  of  a  Eoman  lawyer  instead 
of  that  of  a  Gothic  chief.  After  a  time  he  escaped  from 
her  tutelage,  only  to  ruin  himself  with  self-indulgence 
and  to  die  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  in  534.  Amalasuentha 
then  invited  the  only  surviving  relation  of  the  late  King, 
Theodahad,  to  become  her  colleague  on  the  throne. 
He  accepted  the  offer,  and  -almost  at  once  deposed 
Amalasuentha,  who  soon  after  perished  at  the  hands  of 
a  disaffected  party  of  Gothic  nobles. 

But  now  a  new  power  appears  on  the  scene.  The 
story  of  the  revival  of  the  Empire  will  be  told  in  a  later 
chapter.  By  the  year  535  Justinian,  having  completed 
the  conquest  of  North  Africa,  was  ready  to  profit  by  the 
confusion  in  Italy,  and  to  make  good  the  claims  of  the 
Empire  to  those  Itahan  lands  that  the  emperors  had 
never  ceased  to  regard  as  a  part  of  their  dominions. 
By  the  year  536  Justinian's  generals  had  wrested  Dal- 
matia  from  the  Goths,  and  the  greatest  of  his  com- 
manders, Belisarius,  had  landed  in  Sicily  and  captured 
the  island  with  little  difficulty. 

In  the  spring  of  this  year  Belisarius  crossed  into 
Southern  Italy,  and  the  long  death  agony  of  the  Gothic 
kingdom  began.  With  the  fall  of  Naples  all  Southern 
Italy  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Imperial  general.  The 
Goths  then,  in  a  great  national  assembly,  deposed  the 
worthless  Theodahad,  who  was  hunted  down  and  slain 
on  the  way  to  Kavenna.  In  his  place  a  veteran  Gothic 
warrior,  Witigis,  was  raised  on  the  shields  of  the  Goths 
as  their  king.  But  the  Imperial  cause  still  prospered. 
Witigis   withdrew   northwards,   leaving   only   a    small 


garrison  in  Home,  and  on  the  approach  of  Belisarius 
this  garrison  marched  out  of  the  city,  which  Belisarius 
occupied,  fortified  and  victualled. 

He  had  rightly  judged  that  the  Goths  would  soon 
repent  of  their  mistake  in  abandoning  Rome.  By  the 
spring  of  537  Witigis  marched  south  at  the  head  of  the 
whole  Gothic  army,  and  after  a  tremendous  contest 
outside  the  walls  of  the  city  shut  up  Belisarius  and  his 
forces  in  Rome.  A  year's  siege  followed,  marked  by 
infinite  resourcefulness  on  the  part  of  the  Imperial 
general  and  much  strenuous  fighting  on  the  part  of 
the  Goths,  but  in  March,  538  the  Goths  broke  up  their 
encampments,  where  they  had  suffered  grievously  from 
disease,  and  marched  north  to  meet  an  attack  on 
Ravenna  by  a  fresh  Imperial  force. 

It  took  Belisarius  two  more  years  of  hard  fighting  to 
reach  Ravenna,  which  he  blockaded.       He  is  said  to 
have  won  the  city  by  pretending  to  agree  to  a  proposal  of 
the  Goths  that  he  should  himself  accept  the  throne  of 
Italy.     Witigis  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Constantinople, 
and  Ravenna  became,  and  remained  for  two  hundred 
years,  the  centre  of  Imperial  rule  in  Italy. 
^  Just  at  this  juncture  Belisarius  was  recalled  by  the  Recall  of 
Emperor,  and  the  administration  of  the  newly  recovered  mo'"*""'' 
province   of   Italy  fell    into    the    hands  of   a  body  of 
rapacious  and  often  incompetent  Byzantine  officials- 
men  who  oppressed  and  robbed  with  impartial  injustice 
the  soldiers  of  Belisarius  and  the  native  nobles  of  Italy. 
At  this  time  the  position  of  the  Goths  seemed  desperate. 
Many  of  them  had  submitted  to  the  Empire,  and  the 
irreconcilable  remnant  had  retired  to  the  one  remaining 


36 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  IN  ITALY 


37 


Gothic 
Revival 
under 
Totila 


Return  of 

Belisarius, 

544 


stronghold  in  Italy,  the  city  of  Ticinum  (Pavia).  Here 
they  chose  Ildibad  as  their  king.  After  a  time  his 
scanty  forces  began  to  be  augmented  by  deserters  from 
the  Imperial  army,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  540 
he  was  able  to  take  the  offensive  and  win  a  great  victory 
at  Treviso,  which  gave  back  most  of  Northern  Italy  to 

the  Goths. 

A  short  period  of  internal  dissensions  checked,  for  a 
time,  the  rising  tide  of  Gothic  success.  Ildibad  was 
murdered  by  the  adherents  of  a  rival  faction,  and  his 
successor,  Eraric,  was  in  his  turn  slain.  Then,  in  the 
autumn  of  541,  the  last  great  hero  of  the  Gothic  race 
was  elected  as  king.  He  was  the  nephew  of  Ildibad, 
and  is  known  to  the  Greek  chroniclers  of  the  time  as 
Totila,  though  his  real  name  appears  to  have  been 
Baduila.  His  reign  of  eleven  years  forms  a  splendid 
close  to  the  story  of  Ostrogothic  rule  in  Italy. 

Totila  knew  that  his  chance  of  regaining  Italy  de- 
pended on  his  securing  and  retaining  the  goodwill  of 
the  Italian  people,  alienated  by  the  exactions  of  the  tax- 
gatherers  of  Justinian.  He  therefore  repressed  plunder- 
ing among  his  soldiers,  and  contented  himself  with 
levying  from  the  people  the  taxes  that  they  would 
have  had  to  pay  to  the  Imperial  officers.  So  successful 
was  this  policy  that  within  two  years  of  his  accession 
he  had  reconquered  the  whole  of  Italy  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  cities,  of  which  the  most  important  were 
Ravenna  and  Rome. 

Alarmed  at  this  sudden  change,  Justinian  sent  Beli- 
sarius, who  had  for  some  time  been  in  disfavour  at 
Court,  back  to  Italy,  with  very  inadequate  resources, 


to  reconquer  the  lost  province.     In  the  five  years  of 
desultory   war    that    followed    Belisarius   did    nothing 
worthy  of  his  great  reputation,  excepting  his  occupation 
and  defence  of  Rome.     Totila  had  blockaded  Rome, 
which  was  defended  by  a  small  Imperial  force,  and 
after  a  brave  but  unsuccessful  attempt  by  Belisarius  to 
break  the  boom  that  Totila  had  placed  across  the  river 
Tiber  to  prevent  fresh  provisions  coming  into  the  city 
by  sea,   a  part  of  the  garrison  betrayed   the  city  to 
Totila,  who  entered  without  any  resistance,  the  Im- 
perial troops  marching  out  on  the  other  side.     It  is 
said  that  Totila  at  first  proposed  to  raze  the  whole  city 
to  the  ground,  but  was  persuaded  by  the  entreaties  of 
his  great  antagonist  Belisarius  to  abandon   the  idea. 
Instead,  he  tore  large  gaps  in  the  walls,  so  as  to  make 
the  city  indefensible,  and  then  marched  away  leaving  it 
deserted,  and  not  allowing  a  single  human   being  to 
remain  behind. 

Into  the  deserted  city  Belisarius,  with  a  thousand 
soldiers,    marched   about   a   month   later,    and   within 
twenty-five  days  he  had  rendered  it  once  more  defens- 
ible, with  hastily  constructed  walls  rudely  heaped  to- 
gether.    After  one  vain  effort  to  regain  the  city  Totila 
and   his  Goths  marched  away,   leaving   the  Imperial 
general  entrenched  among  the  ruins  of  the  city  that 
had  once  been  the  mistress  of  the  world.     Two  years 
later,  when  Belisarius  had  been  recalled  from  Italy, 
Totila  succeeded,  through  the  treachery  of  part  of  the 
garrison,  in  once  more  making  himself  master  of  Rome, 
and  he  now  invited  the  Roman  nobles  to  return  to  the 
city,  and  tried  to  repair  the  ravages  of  war. 


38 


THE  DAWN  OF  Mh:DI.EVAL  EUROPE 


Expedition 
of  Narses, 
552 


It    t 


The  end  of 
the  Goths, 
553 


Meanwhile  the  Emperor  determined  on  one  last 
effort  to  win  back  Italy.  His  Grand  Chamberlain, 
Narses,  a  man  already  over  seventy  years  of  age,  was 
placed  in  command  of  a  great  host  of  barbarians, 
attracted  to  his  standard  by  the  hope  of  the  plunder 
of  Italy.  He  marched  overland,  and  arrived  at  Eavenna 
without  encountering  any  resistance.  But  a  little 
farther  south  he  met  the  army  of  Totila,  and  a  great 
battle  ended  in  the  complete  defeat  of  the  Goths,  who 
were  outnumbered  and  perhaps  outgeneralled.  Totila 
was  slain  as  he  was  flying  from  the  field. 

The  end  of  the  Goths  had  come.  For  a  few  months 
a  new  leader,  Teias,  strove  to  make  headway  against 
the  power  of  the  Empire,  but  town  after  town  sur- 
rendered to  Narses,  and  at  length  the  remnant  of  the 
Gothic  army  was  hemmed  in  near  Naples,  and  after 
vainly  seeking  refuge  in  the  rocky  fastnesses  of  Mons 
Lactarius  they  made  one  last  desperate  attack  on  the 
Imperial  forces.  After  two  days  of  hand-to-hand  com- 
bat, during  which  Teias  was  slain,  the  Goths  offered  to 
leave  Italy  and  find  a  home  in  some  barbarian  kingdom. 
Their  terms  were  accepted,  and  they  marched  across 
the  passes  of  the  Alps  and  vanished — we  know  not 
whither. 

Theodoric's  great  attempt  to  build  up  a  kingdom  of 
Italy,  by  welding  together  Koman  and  Teuton  under 
his  sway,  had  failed.  Thirteen  centuries  were  destined 
to  pass  before  the  royal  House  of  Savoy  achieved  the 
goal  that  the  great  Ostrogoth  had  failed  to  reach. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 

A  MONG  the  latest  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  to  cross  The 

the  frontiers  of  the  Empire  was  the  tribe,  or  the^Frauks 
rather  confederation  of  tribes,  to  whom  the  Romans 
gave  the  name  of  the  Franks.^  They  came  from  the 
Thuringian  forest  district,  where  a  river  called  the  Sala 
(Saale),  a  tributary  of  the  Maine,  flows  across  the  land 
still  known  as  the  Unter  Franken.  It  was  probably 
from  this  river  that  they,  or  a  part  of  them,  acquired 
the  name  of  the  Salian  Franks. 

We  first  hear  of  Frankish  inroads  across  the  Rhine 
about  the  year  250.  From  this  time  they  were  con- 
stantly crossing  the  frontier,  either  as  raiders  to  plunder 
the  Roman  cities,  or  as  allies  to  enrol  themselves  in 
the  Imperial  armies. 

In  the  fifth  century  the  Franks  fall  into  three  sections. 
There  were  the  Franks  who  remained  near  the  cradle- 
lands  of  the  race,  in  Thuringia  ;  those  who  settled  along 
the  middle  Rhine,  and  who  were  called  the  Ripuarian 
Franks ;    and   those   who   moved    farther    north   and 

'  The  origin  of  the  name  is  uncertain.  The  two  most  probable  ex- 
planations are  (1)  that  the  name  was  derived  from  a  Keltic  (Breton)  word 
franc,  meaning  "open  "  and  so  "free,"  (2)  that  it  was  derived  from  a 
Teutonic  word  Franci,  meaning  "  ferocious". 

39 


40 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


!« 


occupied  those  lands  north  of  the  Eoman  province  of 
Gaul  that  were  afterwards  called  the  Low  Countries. 

Early  in  the  fifth  century  these  Northern  Franks, 
under  a  chief  named  Clodion,  moved  southward,  and 
drove  the  Eoman  garrison  out  of  Cambrai  in  445, 
Clodion  then  seized  Toumai,  which  became  the  capital 
of  a  new  Frankish  kingdom.  His  successor,  Merowig, 
who  is  said  to  have  taken  his  part  in  the  great  battle  of 
Chalons  that  drove  Attila  out  of  Gaul,  died  about  457, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Childeric. 

Legend  and  history  are  probably  blended  in  these 
earlier  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  Merovingian  house, 
but  with  the  accession  of  Childeric's  son  Clovis,^  in  481, 
the  history  of  the  Frankish  kingdom  really  begins. 

When  Clovis  succeeded  to  his  father's  throne  his 
kingdom  was  one  of  four  Httle  Frankish  kingdoms  in 
Northern  Gaul.  Siegbert  was  king  of  the  Kipuarian 
Franks,  with  his  capital  at  Cologne  ;  Eagnakar  ruled  at 
Cambrai,  Cararic  at  Terouenne  and  Clovis  at  Tournai. 
Farther  South,  in  the  valley  of  the  Seine,  was  the  one 
district  of  Gaul  still  under  Eoman  rule — the  independent 
kingdom  of  Soissons,  which  iEgidius  had  founded,  and 
which  was  now  ruled  by  his  son  Syagrius.  ^Egidius 
was  an  old  enemy  of  the  Franks,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  the  young  Frankish  King  found  an  excuse  for 
Defeat  of  attacking  Syagrius.  In  alliance  with  Eagnakar  of 
Syagrius  Qg^jj^]^j.g^j^  Clovis  marched  against  him,  defeated  him  in 
a  great  battle  near  Soissons,  and  drove  him  out  of  his 
kingdom.     South  of  the  Loire  lay  the  great  kingdom  of 

1  His  Frankish  name  was  Chlodovech,  which  in  later  German  becomes 
Hlodwig  and  Ludvig,  and  in  its  Latinised  form  Clovis  and  Louis. 


Accession 
of  Clovis, 
481 


6;\ULin500.A.D. 


0  50  100 


42 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


43 


! 


Euric  the  Visigoth,  who  had  died  in  485,  leaving  a  son 
Alaric,  a  boy  of  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  to  succeed 
him.  To  Alaric  Syagrius  fled  for  refuge,  but  on  the 
demand  of  Clovis  the  Visigoths  delivered  up  their  guest, 
who  was  promptly  murdered  by  the  Franks.  The 
whole  kingdom  of  Syagrius,  including  the  city  of  Paris, 
fell  to  Clovis. 

In  491  Clovis  marched  against  and  subdued  a  tribe 
of  Eipuarian  Franks,  and  so  extended  his  dominions  to 
the  borders  of  Siegbert  of  Cologne,  with  whom,  for  the 
time,  he  remained  on  friendly  terms. 

This  southward  extension  of  Clovis'  kingdom  brought 
him  into  contact  with  two  important  tribes — the  Bur- 
gundians  in  the  South  and  the  x\lemanni  in  the  East. 
With  the  former  of  these  he  entered  into  friendly 
relations,  and  married  Clotilda,  the  niece  of  the  reigning 
King,  Gundobad.  Gundobad  was  an  Arian,  but  his  niece 
had  been  converted  to  the  Cathohc  faith,  and  Clovis, 
who  was  a  pagan  as  yet,  was  drawn  by  her  influence  in 
the  direction  of  orthodox  Christianity. 

The  actual  conversion  of  Clovis  is  connected  with  an 
expedition  against  the  Alemanni,  a  confederation  of 
Teutonic  tribes  who  had  settled  in  the  lands  watered  by 
the  Maine  and  the  Neckar.  It  is  said  that  Clovis,  hard 
pressed  in  a  fight  at  Tolbiac,  prayed  to  the  Christ  whom 
his  wife  worshipped  to  give  him  victory,  and  that  while 
he  prayed  his  enemies  broke  and  fled. 
Conversion  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  the  story,  it  is  certain 
omovis,    ^^^^   .^  ^^^   Clovis  was  baptised  at   Eheims,  the  old 

ecclesiastical  capital    of   Northern   Gaul,   by   the   aged 
Bishop  Eemigius.     The  bishop  was  attended  by  most 


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44 


* 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


Struggles 
with  Bur- 
gundy 


of  the  bishops  of  the  province,  while  Clovis  brought 
with  him  three  thousand  Frankish  warriors  to  be  bap- 
tised with  him.  Gregory  of  Tours  has  recorded  Kemigius' 
famous  speech  to  the  King :  "  Bow  thy  neck,  Sicambrian  ; 
adore  what  thou  hast  burned,  and  burn  what  thou  hast 
adored "  (Mitis  depone  colla,  Sicamher ;  adora  quod 
incendisti,  incende  quod  adorasti). 

The  baptism  of  Clovis  is  one  of  the  most  important 
turning-points  in  European  history.  How  much  sincere 
conviction  had  to  do  with  his  acceptance  of  Christianity 
it  is  impossible  to  say — certainly  Christian  virtues  are 
not  conspicuous  in  his  after-life — but  as  a  political  step 
his  alHance  with  the  Catholic  Church  was  a  most 
sagacious  move  in  the  struggle  for  power  going  on 
between  the  various  Teutonic  chiefs  of  Western  Europe. 
For  it  threw  all  the  influence  of  the  Catholic  clergy  on 
to  the  side  of  the  Franks.  The  kings  of  the  Ostrogoths, 
Visigoths,  Vandals  and  Burgundians  were  Arians,  and 
however  tolerant  they  might  be,  there  could  be  no  real 
co-operation  between  them  and  the  orthodox  clergy. 
But  when  Clovis  led  his  people  into  the  fold  of  the 
Church  a  new  alliance  began  between  the  Frankish 
kings  and  the  Koman  Church — an  alliance  that  was 
destined,  more  than  any  other  event  of  history,  to  shape 
the  ideas  and  institutions  of  Mediaeval  Europe.  As 
Bishop  Avitus  of  Vienne  said,  writing  to  Clovis  soon 
after  his  baptism  :  '*  Wherever  you  fight  in  these  lands, 
it  is  we  (the  Church)  who  conquer  ". 

The  first  result  of  Clovis'  baptism  was  the  establish- 
ment of  friendly  relations  with  the  cities  of  Brittany, 
which  had  hitherto  withstood  his  efforts  to  gain  control 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


45 


over  them.  Soon  after,  a  domestic  quarrel  in  the 
Burgundian  royal  house  gave  the  Frankish  King  an 
opportunity.  Godegisil,  brother  of  King  Gundobad, 
sent  to  Clovis  offering,  as  later  feudal  language  would 
have  expressed  it,  to  hold  the  kingdom  of  Burgundy 
of  him  if  he  would  help  him  to  drive  out  his  brother. 
Nothing  loth,  Clovis  marched  into  Burgundy  and 
Gundobad  fled  to  Avignon.  But  for  some  reason  that 
is  not  clear,  Clovis  withdrew  his  forces  soon  after  and 
Gundobad  returned,  and,  having  put  his  brother  to  death, 
resumed  the  kingship. 

But  if  Clovis  failed  in  Burgundy  he  soon  extended  Aiemanni 
his  kingdom  in  another  direction.  About  the  year  503 
he  was  again  at  war  with  the  Aiemanni.  He  drove 
them  from  their  lands  by  the  Maine  and  Neckar,  and 
settled  his  Frankish  followers  in  their  place.  The  Aie- 
manni fled  into  the  territories  of  Theodoric,  who  took 
them  under  his  protection  and  forbade  Clovis  to  pursue 
them  further.  They  settled  in  the  district  that  roughly 
corresponds  to  the  modern  states  of  Wurtemburg  and 
Baden  and  part  of  Switzerland — a  district  of  which 
we  shall  hear  again  as  the  Duchy  of  Alemannia  or 
Suabia. 

The  Burgundian  war  is  important  chiefly  because  it 
led  to  an  alliance  of  Arian  kings,  under  the  leadership 
of  Theodoric,  to  check  the  growing  power  of  the  Franks. 

If  the  allies  had  joined  in  an  attack  on  the  dominions 
of  Clovis  it  would  have  gone  hard  with  the  Frankish 
King,  but  Theodoric  was  anxious  for  peace,  and  without 
his  help  the  other  kings  were  not  strong  enough  to  at- 
tack  the  Franks. 


46 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


47 


Visigoths 


Last  years 
of  Clovis, 
509-11 


The  initiative  came  from  the  Franks.  In  507  Clovis 
assembled  his  warriors  and  announced  to  them  :  **  I  take 
it  ill  that  these  Arians  should  hold  any  part  of  Gaul. 
Let  us  go  out  with  God's  help  and  overthrow  them, 
and  bring  their  land  under  our  sway."  The  proposal 
was  promptly  welcomed  and  the  Franks  marched  to 
attack  the  Visigoths.  Alaric,  rashly  taking  the  offen- 
sive without  waiting  for  Theodoric's  troops  to  come 
to  his  help,  was  defeated  and  slain  in  a  great  battle 
near  Poitiers.  The  prize  of  the  victory  was  almost  all 
the  Visigothic  kingdom  north  of  the  Pyrenees,  including 
the  great  cities  of  Bordeaux  and  Toulouse.  After  this 
success  Clovis  returned  home,  leaving  his  son  Theodoric, 
in  alliance  with  Gundobad  and  the  Burgundians,  who 
had  gone  over  to  his  side,  to  press  the  siege  of  Aries, 
which  held  out  successfully  for  nearly  two  years,  till 
relieved  by  the  Ostrogoths  in  510.  In  that  year  a  great 
army,  under  the  command  of  Count  Ibbas,  one  of  Theo- 
doric's best  generals,  crossed  the  Alps  and  inflicted  a 
decisive  defeat  on  the  Franks  and  Burgundians.  The 
war  ended,  as  already  mentioned,  in  a  compromise  be- 
tween Clovis  and  Theodoric. 

Meanwhile  Anastasius  had  rewarded  Clovis'  attack 
on  the  Arian  kingdom  of  the  Visigoths  by  bestowing 
on  him  the  consular  office,  and  at  Tours  the  Prankish 
King  was  invested  with  the  purple  tunic  and  mantle  of 
a  Koman  official. 

The  last  two  years  of  Clovis'  life  and  reign  were,  ac- 
cording to  Gregory  of  Tours,  filled  with  crime  and 
bloodshed.  His  first  victim  was  the  aged  King  of  the 
Kipuarian  Franks,  who  was  murdered  by  his  son  Cloderic, 


it  is  said  at  Clovis'  instigation.  Cloderic,  in  his  turn, 
was  slain  by  some  messengers  of  Clovis,  and  the  king 
himself  then  came  to  Cologne  and  was  elected  as  ruler 
of  the  Kipuarian  kingdom.  Cararic,  king  of  the  Prankish 
kingdom  of  Terouenne,  was  then  seized  and  murdered 
and  his  kingdom  annexed  by  Clovis.  Ragnakar  of 
Cambrai  soon  after  shared  the  same  fate. 

Thus  the  whole  Prankish  district  of  Northern  Gaul 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Clovis,  who  died  in  Paris  in 
the  year  511,  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  leaving  his  king- 
dom to  be  divided  between  his  four  sons. 

At  this  point  it  will  be  convenient  to  say  something  Frankish 
about  the  organisation  of  the  Frankish  kingdom.     The  ^[q^^"^^*' 
Franks,  like  the  other  German  tribes  who  found  their 
way  into  the  Empire,  brought  with  them  the  same  Teu- 
tonic system  of  government  that  Tacitus  describes  in 
his    Gerinania   three  hundred   years  before.      At   the 
head  of  the  tribe  or  nation  was  the  king,  elected  by  the  The  King 
armed  warriors  as  their  war  leader.     His  person  was 
protected  by  special  penalties,  and  certain  lands  were 
assigned  to  him  for  his  maintenance.     His  actual  power 
must  have  varied  much.     A  king  like  Clovis,  skilled  in 
war   and    statecraft,    was   probably   nearly    autocratic. 
But  a  weaker  king  might  easily  be  little  more  than  a 
tool  in  the  hands  of  his  nobles. 

One  change  that  followed  on  the  migration  of  the 
tribes  was  that  the  king  gradually  came  to  be  thought 
of  as  the  owner  of  the  territories  that  he  ruled.  It 
followed  that  the  same  law  of  inheritance  that  held 
good  for  the  lands  of  the  nobles  came  to  be  applied  to 
the  kingdoQi.     The  Frank  system  of  inheritance  was 


46 


THE  DAWN  OF  MKDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


47 


I 


Visigoths  The  initiative  came  from  the  Franks.  In  507  Clovis 
assembled  his  warriors  and  announced  to  them  :  ''I  take 
it  ill  that  these  Arians  should  hold  any  part  of  Gaul. 
Let  us  go  out  with  God's  help  and  overthrow  them, 
and  bring  their  land  under  our  sway."  The  proposal 
was  promptly  welcomed  and  the  Franks  marched  to 
attack  the  Visigoths.  Alaric,  rashly  taking  the  offen- 
sive without  waiting  for  Theodoric's  troops  to  come 
to  his  help,  was  defeated  and  slain  in  a  great  battle 
near  Poitiers.  The  prize  of  the  victory  was  almost  all 
the  Visigothic  kingdom  north  of  the  Pyrenees,  including 
the  great  cities  of  Bordeaux  and  Toulouse.  After  this 
success  Clovis  returned  home,  leaving  his  son  Theodoric, 
in  alliance  with  Gundobad  and  the  Burgundians,  who 
had  gone  over  to  his  side,  to  press  the  siege  of  Aries, 
which  held  out  successfully  for  nearly  two  years,  till 
relieved  by  the  Ostrogoths  in  510.  In  that  year  a  great 
army,  under  the  command  of  Count  Ibbas,  one  of  Theo- 
doric's best  generals,  crossed  the  Alps  and  inflicted  a 
decisive  defeat  on  the  Franks  and  Burgundians.  The 
war  ended,  as  already  mentioned,  in  a  compromise  be- 
tween Clovis  and  Theodoric. 

Meanwhile  Anastasius  had  rewarded  Clovis'  attack 
on  the  Arian  kingdom  of  the  Visigoths  by  bestowing 
on  him  the  consular  office,  and  at  Tours  the  Prankish 
King  was  invested  with  the  purple  tunic  and  mantle  of 
a  Koman  official. 

The  last  two  years  of  Clovis'  life  and  reign  were,  ac- 
cording to  Gregory  of  Tours,  filled  with  crime  and 
bloodshed.  His  first  victim  was  the  aged  King  of  the 
Ripuarian  Franks,  who  was  murdered  by  his  son  Cloderic, 


Last  years 
of  Clovis, 
509-11 


it  is  said  at  Clovis'  instigation.  Cloderic,  in  his  turn, 
was  slain  by  some  messengers  of  Clovis,  and  the  king 
himself  then  came  to  Cologne  and  was  elected  as  ruler 
of  the  Eipuarian  kingdom.  Cararic,  king  of  the  Prankish 
kingdom  of  Terouenne,  was  then  seized  and  murdered 
and  his  kingdom  annexed  by  Clovis.  Eagnakar  of 
Cambrai  soon  after  shared  the  same  fate. 

Thus  the  whole  Prankish  district  of  Northern  Gaul 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Clovis,  who  died  in  Paris  in 
the  year  511,  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  leaving  his  king- 
dom to  be  divided  between  his  four  sons. 

At  this  point  it  will  be  convenient  to  say  something  Prankish 
about  the  organisation  of  the  Prankish  kingdom.     The  ^[^f^  °^^*' 
Pranks,  like  the  other  German  tribes  who  found  their 
way  into  the  Empire,  brought  with  them  the  same  Teu- 
tonic system  of  government  that  Tacitus  describes  in 
his    Gerinania    three  hundred    years  before.      At    the 
head  of  the  tribe  or  nation  was  the  king,  elected  by  the  The  King 
armed  warriors  as  their  war  leader.     His  person  was 
protected  by  special  penalties,  and  certain  lands  were 
assigned  to  him  for  his  maintenance.     His  actual  power 
must  have  varied  much.     A  king  like  Clovis,  skilled  in 
war    and    statecraft,    was    probably    nearly    autocratic. 
But  a  weaker  king  might  easily  be  little  more  than  a 
tool  in  the  hands  of  his  nobles. 

One  change  that  followed  on  the  migration  of  the 
tribes  was  that  the  king  gradually  came  to  be  thought 
of  as  the  owner  of  the  territories  that  he  ruled.  It 
followed  that  the  same  law  of  inheritance  that  held 
good  for  the  lands  of  the  nobles  came  to  be  applied  to 
the  kingdom.     The  Prank  system  of  inheritance  was 


48 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


49 


Nobles 


Warriors 


Serfs  and 
slaves 


equal  division  between  all  the  male  descendants  of  the 
family.  Accordingly  we  shall  find  that  on  the  death 
of  a  Frankish  king  his  kingdom  was  divided  among  his 
sons — an  arrangement  that  gave  rise  to  continual  con- 
tests. 

Even  earlier  than  this  the  kingly  office  had  generally 
become  restricted  to  some  noble  family,  descended 
generally  from  some  hero  of  the  national  history— some 
Amal  or  Meroving  or  Cerdic. 

Next  in  power  to  the  king  stood  the  nobles.  In  the 
primitive  Teutonic  constitutions  these  formed  a  council, 
by  whom  the  king  was  advised  and  by  whose  influence 
his  power  was  held  in  check.  But  migration  and  war 
raised  to  power  among  the  Teutonic  peoples  a  new  class 
of  warrior-nobles,  the  **  thegns  "  of  the  king,  whose  inter- 
est it  was  rather  to  exalt  than  to  curb  the  power  of  the 
king. 

Below  the  nobles  were  the  free  warriors  of  the  tribe, 
who  assembled  two  or  three  times  a  year  for  consulta- 
tion over  such  questions  as  peace  and  war  and  for 
important  judicial  business.  As  the  Frankish  kingdom 
grew  in  extent  such  meetings  must  have  become  less 
frequent,  and  the  actual  share  of  the  armed  warrior  in 
the  work  of  government  much  less. 

Below  the  armed  warrior  class  there  grew  up  two 
other  classes — the  class  of  serfs,  often  perhaps  conquered 
peoples  who  were  allowed  to  retain  certain  right  in  re- 
turn for  labour  on  the  land  of  their  overlord — and  the 
class  of  slaves,  whose  lot  appears  to  have  grown  harder 
when  the  Teutonic  peoples  came  under  the  influence  of 
Eoman  legal  ideas. 


The  Franks,  like  the  other  Teutonic  peoples,  brought  Frankish 
with  them  into  the  Empire  a  body  of  unwritten  custo-  ^^^ 
mary  law.  This  law,  modified  by  local  conditions,  was 
after  a  time  written  in  Latin  in  a  number  of  codes,  of 
which  the  most  famous  is  the  Salian  or  Salic  Law. 
This  code  was  compiled  before  the  conversion  of  the 
Franks  to  Christianity,  but  contains  later  additions  by 
Clovis  and  his  successors.  The  code  consists  of  regula- 
tions about  judicial  procedure  and  statements  of  the 
**  wehrgeld  "  or  compensation  payable  for  various  classes 
of  offences.  The  ''wehrgeld"  for  slaying  a  Frankish 
freeman  was  200  solidi,  for  a  serf  (letus)  100  solidi. 
A  Roman  was  reckoned  as  equal  to  a  serf,  with  a 
wehrgeld  of  100  solidi,  while  that  of  a  slave  was  about 
30  soHdi. 

The  chief  officers  of  the  State,  next  to  the  king,  were 
the  grafio  (count),  who  ruled  over  a  pagus  or  shire; 
then  the  saceharo,  or  ruler  of  a  hundred,  and  the 
thunginus,  apparently  a  popularly  elected  officer  of 
the  hundred. 

The  Salian  Code  also  contains  regulations  for  trial  by 
ordeal — a  method  of  trial  that  the  Church,  in  those  early 
days,  encouraged  in  cases  where  no  evidence  of  a  decisive 
kind  was  forthcoming. 

The  Salian  Law  shows  us  the  legal  system  of  the 
Franks  just  as  it  comes  into  contact  with  the  Roman 
Law  and  the  Law  of  the  Church.  Both  these  were 
destined  to  influence  deeply  the  development  of  Frankish 
institutions,  as  we  shall  see  later. 

In  Gaul  the  Franks  found  at  least  two  peoples  ofTheGanis 
earlier  settlement.      The  Gauls,  a  Keltic  race,  formed  R^J^^ns 


50 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIiEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


61 


h 


\^ 


the  peasantry  of  the  conquered  lands.     They  were  not 
exterminated  or  driven  out,  as  the  Britons  were  by  the 
Anglo-Saxon    invaders    of   this    country,    but    became 
*' hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water"  to  their  con- 
querors.    Above  these  were  the  Komanised  inhabitants 
—men  of  many  races,  who  had  settled  in  the  Empire  at 
an  earlier  time,  and  had  become  Eoman  in  language 
and  ideas.     Between  these  and  the  newcomers  friendly 
relations  gradually  grew  up,  and  the  influence  of  this 
Eoman  civiHsation  modified  by  degrees  the  language 
and  character  of  the  Franks  of  the  West,  while  those 
who  remained  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ehine  retained 
their  Teutonic  language  and  customs. 
Partitions       The  history  of  the  Frankish  kingdoms  after  the  death 
«f^rankish  ^^  ^jQ^-g  ^^^  ]^e  told  Only  in  outline.     His  Empire— for 
"^^''^      such  it  had  really  become— was  parcelled  out  by  his  sons 
into   four  kingdoms,   having   their   capitals   at    Metz, 
Orleans,  Paris  and  Soissons.     The  period  that  follows 
is  marked   by  the   extension  of  the   frontiers  of   the 
Merovingian  lands  and  by  constant  struggles  between 
the  members  of  the  royal   house— struggles  in  which 
murder  plays  as  large  a  part  as  open  contest. 

Theodoric,  Clovis'  eldest  son,  to  whom  the  kingdom 
of  Metz  had  fallen,  carried  his  frontiers  eastwards  into 
Thuringia  and  to  the  banks  of  the  Danube.  Meanwhile 
the  other  three  brothers  joined  in  an  attack  on  Burgundy, 
which  was  absorbed  into  the  Frankish  kingdom  in  584. 
A  Httle  later  Theodebert,  son  of  Theodoric  of  Metz, 
overran  and  conquered  from  the  Ostrogoths  the  old 
Eoman  province  of  Provence,  and  so  brought  the 
Frankish  realm  to  the  shores  of   the  Mediterranean. 


A  During  all  this  time  internal  feuds  went  on  between 
the  brothers  and  nephews,  till,  in  558,  Clotair  of  Soissons 
became  the  sole  survivor  of  the  Merovingian  house,  and 
reunited  under  one  rule  all  the  possessions  of  the 
Frankish  family.  He  died  in  561,  almost  his  last  public 
act  having  been  to  capture  his  son  Chramnus,  who  had 
rebelled  against  him,  and  bum  him  alive,  with  all  his 
family. 

Clotair  left  four  sons,  who  again  partitioned  theBrunhiida 
Frankish  realm.  And  now  two  new  figures  appear  upongonda^*  ^ 
the  scene  where  they  are  destined  to  play  the  leading 
parts  in  a  ferocious  and  bloodthirsty  drama.  The  first 
of  these  was  Brunhilda,  a  daughter  of  the  Visigothic 
King  of  Spain,  who  became  the  wife  of  Siegbert  of  Metz. 
The  other  was  Fredegonda.  Audovera,  wife  of  Chilperic 
of  Soissons,  brought  her  to  the  Court  as  her  maid,  but 
f I  she  succeeded  in  inducing  the  king  to  repudiate  his  wife. 
He  then  married  Brunhilda's  sister,  but  Fredegonda 
after  a  time  secured  her  murder,  and  succeeded  to  her 
place  as  queen  at  Soissons.  Brunhilda  naturally  re- 
garded the  upstart  murderess  with  deadly  hatred. 

War  followed  between  the  two  kings,  but  Fredegonda, 
having  secured  the  assassination  of  Siegbert  at  the 
moment  of  victory,  murdered  one  by  one  all  the  children 
of  her  husband  excepting  her  own  son  Clotair,  and  then 
finally  her  husband  himself. 

Meanwhile  a  series  of  events  too  complicated  to  tell 
in  detail,  placed  Childebert,  Brunhilda's  son,  on  the 
thrones  of  Paris,  Orleans  and  Burgundy  in  593.  Years 
of  war  followed,  during  which  the  authority  of  the  sur- 
viving kings  of  the  Merovingian  house  over  the  vassals 


lis 


52  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 

declined.  Childebert  died  in  596,  leaving  Branhilda  as 
recent  for  his  two  little  sons.  Next  year  Fredegonda 
also  died,  just  as  her  plan  for  uniting  all  the  Franks 
under  her  son's  rule  seemed  on  the  verge  of  success. 
Still  the  contest  went  on,  till  the  death  of  Brunhilda, 
who  was  brutally  done  to  death  by  Clotair  in  614,  left 
the  son  of  Fredegonda  as  sole  ruler  of   the  Frankish 

realm.  .     . 

In  these  long  years  of  contest  the  Merovmgian  kmg- 
dom  gradually  fell  into  three  divisions,  Austrasia, 
Neustria  and  Burgundy,  the  first  comprising  the  Teu- 
tonic lands  of  the  east,  the  second  the  Latimsed  lands 
west  of  the  Scheldt  and  Meuse,  the  last  the  lands 
farther  south,  watered  by  the  Rhone. 

The  condition  of  Western  Europe  at  this  penod  is 
well  summarised  in  Milman's  History  of  Latin  Chris- 

Condition        "  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  dark  and  odious 
Eulf  state  of  society  than  that  of  France  under  the  Mero- 
vingian kings,  the  descendants  of  Clovis,  as  described 
by  Gregory  of  Tours.     In  the  conflict  or  coalition  of 
barbarism   with   Roman    Christianity,   barbarism   had 
introduced  into  Christianity  all  its  ferocity,  with  none 
of  its  generosity  or  magnanimity.      Its  energy  shows 
itself  in   atrocity  of   cruelty   and    even  of   sensuality. 
Throughout  assassinations,  parricides  and  fratricides  in- 
termingle with  adulteries  and  rapes.    That  King  Clotair 
should  burn  alive  his  rebellious  son  with  his  wife  and 
daughter  is  fearful  enough,  but  we  are  astounded  even 
in  these  times  with  a  Bishop  of  Tours  burning  a  man 
alive  to  obtain  the  deeds  of  an  estate  which  he  coveted. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  FRANKS 


53 


Fredegonda  sends  two  murderers  to  assassinate  Childe- 
bert, and  these  assassins  are  clergymen.  She  causes  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen  to  be  murdered  while  chanting  the 
service  in  his  church ;  and  in  this  murder  a  bishop  and 
an  archdeacon  are  her  accomplices.  Marriage  was  a 
bond  contracted  and  broken  on  the  lightest  occasion. 
Some  of  the  Merovingian  kings  took  as  many  wives, 
either  together  or  in  succession,  as  suited  either  their 
passion  or  their  politics." 

Devastated  by  civil  war,  the  lands  of  Western  Europe 
also  suffered,  in  this  sixth  century,  the  horrors  of  plague 
and  hostile  invasion.  The  chroniclers  of  the  time  are 
full  of  records  of  the  superstitious  terrors  awakened  by 
the  pestilence  that  swept  across  Europe,  striking  down 
its  victims  by  thousands,  and  appearing  to  the  terrified 
eyes  of  men  as  a  visible  demon  armed  with  a  dart. 
And  on  the  society  disorganised  by  pestilence,  wild  tribes 
of  Saxons,  Huns  and  other  peoples  broke,  plundering  and 
slaying.  Unless  there  had  arisen  new  leaders  to  defend 
the  frontiers.  Western  Europe  must  have  relapsed  into 
barbarism  and  anarchy. 


Justin, 
518-28 


Accession 
of  Jus- 
tinian 


CHAPTEE  VI 


JUSTINIAN 


rpHE  death  of  Theodoric  coincides  with  the  beginning 
-^  of  a  revival  in  the  Empire  under  the  great  Emperor 
Justinian.  In  518  Anastasius  the  Emperor  died,  and 
Justin,  the  commander  of  the  lUyrian  Imperial  guard, 
was  selected  by  the  soldiers  as  his  successor.  He  was  an 
Illyrian  by  race,  and  had  served  in  the  armies  of  the 
Empire  for  fifty  years.  His  nine  years'  rule  as  Emperor 
was  marked  by  few  events  of  importance.  He  was  il- 
literate and  unaccustomed  to  civil  business,  and  adopted 
his  nephew  Justinian,  for  whom  he  had  provided  a 
thorough  education,  as  his  colleague.  On  his  death,  in 
528,  Justinian  succeeded  as  sole  Emperor. 

The  Empire  of  which  Justinian  now  became  undis- 
puted master  had  been  strengthened  and  enriched  by 
seventy  years  of  almost  unbroken  peace.  Occasional 
frontier  wars  gave  occupation  to  the  army,  without 
seriously  affecting  the  prosperity  of  the  people,  while  an 
efficient  body  of  officials  conducted  the  administration. 
Justin,  by  his  profession  of  orthodoxy,  had  closed  a 
long-standing  dispute  between  the  Emperors  and  the 
Church  authorities,  and  his  nephew  was  therefore  able 
to  exercise   autocratic  authority  both  in   Church   and 

54 


JUSTINIAN 


55 


State.  Justinian  had  already  shown  himself  an  eager 
student  of  all  departments  of  knowledge,  and  when  he 
became  his  uncle's  colleague  he  quickly  developed  great 
powers  of  administration.  His  industry  and  grasp  of 
affairs  were  the  wonder  of  the  Court.  Unemotional  and 
pitiless,  he  ruled  his  Empire  with  an  unwearied  diHgence 
that  left  little  time  either  for  sleep  or  recreation.  While 
deficient  in  the  highest  qualities  of  statesmanship  he  was 
able  and  ambitious ;  and  was  well  served  by  the  officers 
whom  he  gathered  around  him,  and  to  whom  the  carry- 
ing out  of  his  schemes  was  entrusted. 

Before  he  became  Emperor  he  had  married  Theodora, 
a  woman  of  remarkable  beauty  and  force  of  character, 
who  had  been  a  dancer  at  the  theatre.  Whatever  her 
earlier  life  may  have  been,  she  appears,  after  her 
marriage,  to  have  given  no  opportunity  for  scandal,  and 
to  have  been  forward  in  promoting  charitable  works. 
Soon  after  Justinian's  accession  to  the  throne  the 
celebrated  "  Nika "  riots  gave  her  the  opportunity  of 
showing  her  strength  of  will. 

Of  the  two  factions  in  Constantinople,  Justinian's 
dynasty  was  supported  by  the  "blues,"  the**  greens" 
being  generally  hostile.  Encouraged  by  the  Imperial 
patronage,  the  blues  appear  to  have  created  something 
like  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  city,  till  at  last  Justinian 
determined  to  assert  his  authority.  An  opportunity  for 
doing  so  occurred  in  January,  532,  when  a  faction  fight 
began  in  the  city  which  ended  in  the  two  factions  joining 
together  to  attack  the  authorities.  After  some  days  of 
rioting,  in  the  course  of  which  a  considerable  part  of 
the   city   was   burnt,    the   people   seized    Hypatius,    a 


The 

"Nika" 

sedition 


56 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


JUSTINIAN 


57 


1 


nephew  of  Anastasius,  and  compelled  him  to  be  crowned 

as  Emperor. 

The  fate  of  Justinian  seemed  to  hang  in  the  balance, 
and  some  of  his  ministers  advised  him  to  fly.  But 
Theodora  repudiated  the  suggestion  with  indignation, 
and  declared  that  ''Empire  is  a  fair  winding-sheet". 
Emboldened  by  her  words,  the  Emperor  determined  to 
abide  the  issue.  Belisarius,  with  all  the  troops  that 
could  be  got  together,  was  sent  to  attack  the  rioters, 
while  Narses,  the  chamberlain,  was  sent  to  bribe  the 
leaders  of  the  blues  and  sow  disaffection  between  the 
allied  factions. 

Belisarius  marched  to  the  Hippodrome,  where  the 
people  were  assembled,  and  breaking  in  with  his  army 
began  a  massacre  in  which,  it  is  said,  about  35,000 
people  perished.  The  blues  and  the  greens  still  went 
on  and  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  city  with  their  con- 
tests, but  their  poHtical  importance  ceased  after  the 
great  Nika  sedition,  and  the  throne  of  Justinian  was 
never  again  menaced  by  their  attacks. 

The  reign  of  Justinian  is  notable  especially  for  three 
things — his  conquests,  his  laws  and  his  buildings. 
Justinian's  Justinian's  great  desire  was  to  restore  the  ancient 
conquests  ^^oues  of  the  Empire  by  reconquering  the  Western 
provinces  that  had  been  lost  to  it  in  the  previous  cen- 
tury. The  time  was  propitious  for  such  an  undertaking. 
The  Teutonic  kingdoms  in  the  west  were  no  longer 
ruled  by  their  first  conquerors,  but  by  their  degenerate 
descendants.  And,  moreover,  the  Teutonic  conquerors 
had  not  succeeded  in  winning  the  support  of  the  Eoman 
population  in  the  lands  that  they  had  conquered.     In 


Italy,  especially,  they  remained  practically  a  garrison  in 
a  hostile  country. 

The  first  of  the  Western  kingdoms  to  be  reabsorbed  i.  North 

Atricft 

was  the  Vandal  kingdom  of  North  Africa.  There  a 
Catholic  king,  Hilderic,  was  deposed  by  an  Arian  rival, 
Geilamir.  The  usurper  met  the  protests  of  Justinian 
with  insult,  and  in  588  Justinian  equipped  an  expedition 
under  the  command  of  the  great  general  Belisarius. 
The  Koman  fleet  arrived,  after  a  protracted  voyage,  to 
find  the  Vandals  entirely  unprepared  for  defence,  and 
Belisarius  marched  to  within  ten  miles  of  Carthage 
before  he  met  the  army  that  the  Vandal  king  had 
hastily  collected.  After  a  hard  fight  the  Vandal  host 
was  broken,  and  the  victorious  Eomans  entered  Carthage 
amid  the  cheers  of  the  provincial  population,  who 
welcomed  the  Imperial  army  as  their  deliverers  from 
the  hated  Vandal  yoke.  One  more  fight  outside  the 
walls  of  Carthage  finally  broke  the  power  of  the  Vandals, 
and  Belisarius  came  home  in  584,  bringing  great  spoils 
and  the  Vandal  king  as  a  captive  to  grace  his  triumph. 
Geilamir  was  generously  treated  by  Justinian,  and 
allowed  to  live  in  Phrygia  in  comfort  to  the  end  of  his 
life.  North  Africa  became  once  more  an  Imperial 
province. 

The  story  of  the  reconquest  of  Italy  has  been  already  2.  Italy 
told.     It  began  with  Belisarius'  conquest  of  Sicily  in 
585,  and  ended  with  the  victory  of  Narses  in  552. 

Two  Persian  wars  interrupted  this  campaign  in  the  Persian 
west.     The  first  of  these,  lasting  from  528  to  581 ,  was  the  ^^^^ 
war  in  which  Belisarius  won  his  first  laurels.     It  ended 
in  an  inconclusive  peace.     The  second  began  in  540, 


58 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


JUSTINIAN 


59 


i  i 

i     ' 


I 


.11  i 

*     i  I 

i 


!' 


and  was  due  to  the  fear  of  the  young  Persian  king, 
Chosroes,  that,  as  soon  as  Justinian's  campaign  in  the 
west  was  over,  he  would  turn  eastwards  and  overwhelm 
the  Persian  power.  Kesolving  to  take  the  initiative,  he 
marched  into  Syria  and  captured  and  sacked  the  great 
city  of  Antioch,  the  third  city  of  the  Empire  in  wealth 
and  splendour.  BeHsarius  was  recalled  from  the  west 
to  meet  this  new  danger,  and  three  years  of  indecisive 
contest  followed,  interrupted  by  the  great  plague  that 
ravaged  the  whole  East  in  542.  Soon  after,  Belisarius, 
falling  into  disgrace  at  Court,  was  recalled,  and  the  war 
dragged  on  for  two  years  longer,  ending  in  a  five  years' 
truce  in  545.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the  war  was 
renewed,  the  centre  of  contest  being  the  district  of 
Colchis,  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  At  last,  in 
555,  the  Persians  made  peace,  abandoning  Colchis  in 
return  for  a  money  payment. 

The  chief  importance  of  these  Persian  wars,  in  their 
bearing  on  European  history,  was  that  they  drained 
away  the  military  and  financial  resources  of  the  Empire, 
and  were  among  the  causes  that  necessitated  the  heavy 
burden  of  taxation  that  Justinian  laid  upon  his  subjects. 
Justinian's  A  large  sum  was  also  spent  in  subsidies  to  Hunnish  and 
buildings  Q^YiQv  barbarian  tribes  on  the  northern  frontier  to  buy 
off  their  opposition,  while  the  Imperial  armies  were 
occupied  with  the  Italian  and  Persian  campaigns.  But 
it  was  not  only  on  war  that  the  resources  of  the  Empire 
were  expended.  Justinian  was  a  great  builder.  In  all 
parts  of  the  Empire  churches,  aqueducts,  bridges,  fortifi- 
cations, attested  his  wealth  and  energy.  Supreme 
among    his   architectural    triumphs    stands    the   great 


Church  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinople,  on  the  site  of 
Constantino's  Church  of  the  Divine  Wisdom,  which 
had  been  twice  destroyed  by  fire.  Anthemius  of  Tralles 
was  the  architect  of  the  new  church,  for  the  adornment 
of  which  the  temples  of  Asia  and  of  Greece  were 
plundered  of  their  richest  marbles  and  columns.  When 
completed,  it  must  have  been  a  spectacle  of  unparalleled 
magnificence,  with  its  great  dome  "  in  which  the  sun- 
light seemed  to  grow,"  its  hundred  columns  and  its 
golden  altar.  St.  Sophia  became  the  model  to  the 
whole  Eastern  world  for  centuries,  and  remains  still  the 
greatest  example  of  the  Byzantine  style  of  architecture. 

But  of  all  the  works  of  Justinian,  that  which  ex- The  Code 

J     .1  X      i     •    n  i»i        1  •  ,  .    of  Roman 

ercised  the  greatest  mnuence  on  after-times  was  his  Law 
codification  of  Roman  Law.  After  the  establishment 
of  the  Empire,  the  Imperial  constitutions,  issued  by  the 
authority  of  the  Emperor,  took  the  place  of  the  leges 
passed  in  the  comitia.  From  time  to  time  these 
constitutions  had  been  collected  into  codes,  the  last 
collection  having  been  made  in  the  time  of  Theodosius 
(438).  But  since  that  time  many  fresh  constitutions 
had  been  issued,  and  Justinian  determined  to  set  about 
the  compilation  of  a  new  code  that  should  be  simpler 
and  more  complete  than  any  yet  issued.  A  commission 
of  ten  men,  of  whom  the  quaestor  Tribonian  was  the 
most  important,  undertook  the  work  in  528,  and  in  the 
following  year  the  Code  of  Justinian  was  published. 

This  was  followed  by  a  much  more  difficult  under- The 
taking.     Much  of  Roman  law  was  not  in  the  form  oi^*^^^^^ 
constitutions   but   in    the   form  of  opinions  given  by 
lawyers  of  recognised  authority — responsa  prudentum, 


60 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


JUSTINIAN 


61 


li 


The  Insti- 
tutions 


as  they  were  called ;  very  much  as  English  Common 
Law  is  based  on  verdicts  given  by  judges  in  the  past. 
These  responsa  had  been  collected  in  many  large 
volumes,  but  they  had  never  been  arranged  on  any 
system  and  often  contradicted  each  other.  Justinian 
determined  to  put  this  mass  of  material  into  order,  and 
he  appointed  a  new  commission  in  530  for  that  purpose. 

It  took  seventeen  lawyers  three  years  to  read  through 
all  the  existing  collections  of  responsa,  eliminate  con- 
tradictions and  superfluous  matter,  and  rearrange  the 
whole  in  one  series  of  volumes.  The  code  thus 
drawn  up,  known  as  the  Digest  or  Pandects,  became 
henceforth  the  recognised  authority  for  Koman  case 
law. 

Besides  these  two  great  works,  Justinian  issued  a 
manual  of  the  principles  of  Roman  law  in  four  volumes, 
specially  for  students — the  Institutions. 

The  administrative  work  of  the  Empire  was  well 
conducted  under  Justinian,  but  all  other  functions  of 
government  were  subordinated  to  the  supreme  necessity 
of  raising  funds  for  Justinian's  wars  and  buildings  and 
the  payment  of  the  army  of  officials  who  conducted  the 
administration  of  the  provinces.  Justinian's  expedients 
for  raising  money  were  often  discreditable.  He  is  said 
to  have  sold  offices,  to  have  confiscated  the  property  of 
private  citizens,  and  once  at  least  to  have  attempted  to 
debase  the  coinage — an  atteijipt  only  frustrated  by  a 
threat  of  insurrection. 

Much  of  Justinian's  energies  were  spent  over  ecclesi- 
astical controversies,  into  which  there  is  no  need  for  us 
to  enter,     He  claimed  the  most  autocratic  authority 


over   the   Church   in  the    Empire   and   wrote   several 
treatises  and  letters  on  doctrinal  questions. 

In  December,  565,  Justinian  died.  His  reign  of 
nearly  forty  years,  while  it  had  restored  Italy  and  North 
Africa  to  the  Empire  for  a  time,  had  exhausted  the 
Eastern  provinces  that  constituted  the  real  strength 
of  the  Empire.  Even  before  his  death  there  were  omin- 
ous indications  that  the  resources  of  the  Empire  had 
been  overtaxed,  and  almost  immediately  after  his  death 
the  collapse  of  his  system  showed  on  how  unsubstan- 
tial a  foundation  it  rested.  Had  Justinian,  instead  of 
turning  his  ambitions  westward,  concentrated  his  atten- 
tion to  developing  the  defences  of  the  eastern  frontiers 
of  the  Empire,  the  crescent-flag  of  the  Prophet  might 
never  have  waved  over  Jerusalem  or  Antioch,  and  the 
course  of  human  history  might  have  been  different  to  a 
degree  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate. 

The  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century  was  a  period  of  justiuii., 
misfortune  for  the  Empire.  The  Persian  war  broke  **'  ' 
out  again  in  the  east,  while  the  newly  conquered  lands 
in  the  west  were  overrun  by  fresh  migrations  of  bar- 
barians. Justin  II.  (565-578),  who  succeeded  his  uncle 
without  opposition,  declined  to  continue  the  subsidies 
that  his  predecessor  had  paid  to  the  Persians  and  to  the 
Avars  and  other  tribes  on  the  Danube.  The  result  was 
that  the  Empire  became  involved  in  a  war  with  the 
Persians  that  lasted  for  nearly  twenty  years,  while  the 
Avars  began  to  break  through  the  northern  frontiers  of 
the  Empire. 

Four  years  before  his  death  Justin  lost  his  reason,  Tiberius 
and   was  succeeded   by    Tiberius   II.,    a  distinguished    ''      '** 


I  ^ 


:        < 


Maurice, 
582-602 


Phocas, 
603-610 


62 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


\ 


military  officer,  whose  short  reign  of  eight  years  was 
chiefly  notable  for  an  attempt  to  win  popularity  by 
remitting  many  of  the  most  oppressive  taxes.  But  as 
Tiberius  tried  at  the  same  time  to  propitiate  the  army 
by  rich  and  frequent  donations,  he  left  to  his  successor 
a  depleted  treasury  and  an  impoverished  Empire.  Just 
before  his  death  he  nominated  as  his  successor  one  of  the 
best  of  his  generals,  Maurice,  who  reigned  for  twenty 
years  (582-602),  striving  manfully  but  vainly  to  carry 
on  the  affairs  of  the  State  with  a  bankrupt  exchequer  and 
an  army  constantly  on  the  verge  of  mutiny.  Finally, 
in  602,  the  Danubian  army  rose  in  mutiny  against  an 
order  to  winter  in  the  open,  and  under  their  leader, 
Phocas,  marched  to  Constantinople.  Maurice  fled  with 
his  children,  but  was  pursued  and  beheaded  by  order  of 
the  usurper,  dying,  it  is  said,  with  the  words  on  his  lips, 
"  Just  art  Thou,  0  Lord  God,  and  just  are  Thy  judg- 
ments ". 

For  seven  years  Constantinople  suffered  the  brutalities 
and  incompetence  of  Phocas,  and  the  Empire  seemed  on 
the  verge  of  destruction  when  deliverance  came  from 
an  unexpected  quarter.  The  exarch  Heraclius,  who 
ruled  North  Africa  for  the  Emperor,  rose  in  rebellion, 
Heraclius  and  fitted  out  a  fleet,  which  he  sent  under  the  command 
of  his  son,  Heraclius,  in  the  spring  of  610,  to  Constan- 
tinople. Heraclius  met  with  no  opposition,  and  the 
tyrant  Phocas  was  handed  over  to  him  in  chains  and 
sent  to  share  the  doom  of  his  predecessor. 

One  most  important  series  of  events  of  these  troubled 
years  remains  to  be  noticed.  While  the  Lombards  were 
pressing  into  Italy  and  the  Persians  ravaging  Asia  Minor, 


Avar 
invasious 


JUSTINIAN 


63 


hordes  of  uncivilised  barbarians  came  across  the 
Danube  and  settled  in  the  Balkan  district.  The  earliest 
of  these  invaders  were  the  Avars.  Of  the  same  race  as 
the  Huns,  they  had  moved  westward  from  the  high- 
lands of  Central  Asia,  and  appeared  now  in  the  lands 
north  of  the  Danube.  For  a  time  they  received  a  sub- 
sidy from  Justinian  as  a  kind  of  frontier-guard ;  but 
soon  after  the  accession  of  Justin,  the  Avar  chagan,  or 
king,  made  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  Lombards  for  a 
joint  attack  upon  the  Gepidae,  a  Teutonic  tribe  occupy- 
ing lands  north  of  the  Danube.  The  outcome  of  the 
attack  was  the  destruction  of  the  Gepidae,  and  the 
acquisition  of  their  lands  and  the  neighbouring  province 
of  Pannonia  by  the  Avars,  who  now  became  one  of  the 
strongest  powers  of  Central  Europe.  For  many  years 
the  relations  between  the  Avars  and  the  Empire  were 
generally  hostile,  intervals  of  peace  being  purchased  from 
time  to  time  at  the  cost  of  heavy  subsidies. 

While  these  contests  were  in  progress  men  ofsiav 
another  race  were  finding  their  way  into  the  devastated  ""^*  ^^^^ 
lands  of  the  Balkan  district  in  ever-increasing  numbers. 
We  cannot  yet  locate  with  any  certainty  the  primitive 
home  of  the  Slavonic  race.  The  Slavonic  language 
belongs  to  the  Aryan  or  Indo-European  family  of 
languages,  but  the  early  history  of  it  is  unknown.  All 
that  is  certain  is  that  Slavs  began  to  drift  into  the 
Empire  from  beyond  the  Danube  in  the  third  century 
in  the  same  way  that  Teutons  came  into  Gaul  from 
beyond  the  Rhine.  The  word  **  slav  "  or  "  slave  "  appears 
to  be  derived  either  from  the  root  slovo  (a  word)  and  so 
to  mean  **  the  man  who  speaks  intelligibly,"  or  from  a 


64 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


|i 


I     t" 


root  slava,  meaning  ''  glory  ".  But  so  many  people  of 
this  race  passed  into  the  hands  of  German  tribes  as 
captives  in  war  that  the  word  slave,  originally  a  title  of 
honour,  became  the  name  for  an  "  unfree  "  man. 

The  Slav  migrations,  at  first  insignificant,  gradually 
grew  larger,  as  the  weakness  of  the  Empire  and  the 
desire  to  escape  from  the  Avar  yoke  at  once  tempted 
and  drove  them  across  the  Danube.  They  came  into  the 
Balkan  Peninsula,  not  as  the  Ostrogoths  or  Visigoths  had 
come,  to  ravage  and  depart,  but  to  settle  there  as  per- 
manent occupiers  of  the  land.  They  were  a  savage 
people,  primitive  alike  in  their  methods  of  agriculture 
and  war.  They  settled  in  small  communities,  and 
carried  on  a  constant  guerilla  war  with  the  Eoman 
authorities.  It  was  impossible  to  dislodge  them  from 
their  shelters  among  the  forests  and  mountains ;  if  a  body 
of  them  were  lured  into  the  open  and  exterminated,  the 
successful  army  might  be  assailed  among  the  woods  by 
an  ambushed  foe  armed  with  poisoned  darts.  So  at  last, 
in  all  the  lands  from  Belgrade  to  Adrianople,  and  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube  to  the  frontiers  of  Greece, 
the  Latin  language  gave  place  to  the  Slavonic,  and 
the  Eoman  Empire  in  the  east  was  cut  off  by  a  new 
barrier  from  her  ancient  provinces  in  the  west. 


CHAPTEE  VII 

BENEDICT  OF  NURSIA  AND  COLUMBAN 

A  T  about  the  same  time  that  Justinian  was  drawing 
up  his  Code  of  Eoman  Law  among  the  splendours 
of  Constantinople,  a  lonely  monk  on  an  Itahan  mountain 
was  drawing  up  the  rule  that  was  destined  to  regulate 
the  monastic  life  of  Western  Europe  for  seven  hundred 
years. 

Monasticism  had  its  earliest  home  in  the  east,  where, 
at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  Basil  of  Cappadocia 
drew  up  a  body  of  regulations  for  the  hfe  of  the  monas- 
teries. The  monastic  idea  gradually  spread  to  the  west, 
and  in  the  dark  days  of  the  break-up  of  the  Eoman 
civilisation  of  Gaul  and  Italy  many  men  sought  refuge 
in  the  austerities  of  the  religious  life,  either  in  small 
communities  or  as  hermits  in  complete  isolation.  Among 
all  these  men  one  name  stands  conspicuous — that  of 
Benedict  of  Nursia. 

He  was  born   about   the   year  480,  just   after  the  Early  life 
accession  of  Odoacer  to  the  kingship   of  Italy.     The  ^^  ^®°®^^^* 
little  town  of  Nursia,  which  was   his  birthplace,  lay 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Apennines,  about  twenty  miles 
from  Spoleto.      His  parents  were  in  a  good  position, 
and  were  able  to  give  their  son  an  education  at  Eome, 

5  65 


N 


66 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


Monte 

Cassino, 

528 


whither  he  was  sent  while  still  a  boy.     Shocked  and 
startled  by  the  wickedness  of  the  city,  he  determined 
after  a  time  to  abandon  his  studies  and  adopt  the  monastic 
Hfe.     Accompanied  by  his  nurse,  he  set  out  in  search 
of  a  deserted  place  where  he  might  give  himself  to  medi- 
tation and  prayer,  and  after  staying  for  a  time  at  Efida, 
he  fled  secretly  across  the  hills  to  Subiaco,  where  he  met 
a  monk  named  Eomanus,  who  admitted  him  to  the 
monastic  order  and  took  him  to  a  cave  on  the  hillside, 
where  he  stayed  for  three  years  hidden  from  the  eyes 
of   men.      Here  Benedict  passed  through   a  time  of 
contest,  resisting  with  difficulty  the  allurements  of  the 
world  that  he  had  forsaken.     On  one  occasion,  in  his 
determination  to  conquer  unholy  desires,  he  is  said  to 
have  plunged  naked  into  a  thicket  of  thorns  and  nettles  ; 
and  a  beautiful  old  legend  tells  how,  when  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi  visited  the  monastery  seven  hundred  years 
after,  the  thorn  bushes  suddenly  turned  into  roses. 

Gradually  the  fame  of  the  young  hermit  spread 
throughout  the  district,  and  the  monks  of  the  neigh- 
bouring monastery  of  Varia  requested  him  to  become 
their  abbot.  A  short  experience  served  to  show  that 
his  rule  was  too  strict  for  them,  and  he  returned  for  a 
time  to  his  home  in  the  wilderness. 

But  now  from  all  parts  of  Italy  men  who  desired  to 
enter  the  monastic  life  flocked  to  him,  so  that  before 
long  there  were  no  less  than  twelve  monasteries  around 
Subiaco  under  his  rule.  About  the  year  528,  moved  by 
a  desire  for  greater  solitude,  and  partly  also  by  the  opposi- 
tion of  some  of  the  neighbouring  clergy,  Benedict,  with 


BENEDICT  OF  NURSIA  AND  COLUMBAN 


67 


a  few  friends,  left  Subiaco  and  travelled  southwards 
to  INIonte  Cassino,  the  celebrated  hill  about  half-way 
between  Kome  and  Naples  that  was  destined  to  become 
the  centre  of  the  Benedictine  monastic  movement.  It 
is  characteristic  of  the  confusion  of  the  times  that  the 
little  party  of  monks  found,  on  their  arrival,  that  the 
peasants  still  offered  sacrifice  to  Apollo  at  an  altar  on 
the  hillside.  This  altar  Benedict  destroyed,  erecting 
in  its  place  a  Christian  church. 

For  fifteen  years  Benedict  remained  at  Monte  Cassino, 
and  many  are  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  life  of  St. 
Benedict  by  Gregory  the  Great,  which  is  our  chief  source 
of  information  about  him.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
episodes  in  Gregory's  life  is  the  interview  between  the  Meeting  of 
saint  and  the  great  Gothic  warrior  Totila.  Totila  first  ^d  TcJtUa 
put  the  powers  of  the  holy  man  to  the  test  by  sending 
his  sword-bearer,  disguised  in  his  armour,  and  attended 
by  his  body-servants,  to  the  abbot,  who  promptly  pene- 
trated the  disguise  and  sent  the  sword-bearer  back  to 
his  master. 

''  Then,  in  his  own  person,  the  same  Totila  approached 
the  man  of  God,  but  when  he  saw  him  sitting  afar  off 
he  did  not  dare  to  approach  him,  but  cast  himself  on 
the  ground.  Then,  when  the  man  of  God  had  twice  or 
thrice  said  to  him  *  Kise,'  but  still  he  did  not  dare  to 
raise  himself  from  the  earth,  Benedict  the  servant  of 
'Tesus  Christ  condescended  to  approach  the  prostrate 
king  and  cause  him  to  rise.  He  rebuked  him  for  his 
past  deeds,  and  in  a  few  words  told  him  all  that  should 
come  to  pass,  saying  :  — 


ii 


68 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


BENEDICT  OF  NURSIA  AND  COLUMBAN 


69 


Much  evil  hast  thou  done, 
Much  evil  art  thou  doing, 
Now  at  length  cease  from  sin. 
Thou  shalt  enter  Rome  ; 
Thou  shalt  cross  the  sea, 
Nine  years  shalt  thou  reign. 
In  the  tenth  shalt  thou  die. 

When  he  heard  these  words,  the  king,  vehemently 
terrified,  asked  for  his  prayers,  and  withdrew  ;  and  from 
that  time  forward  he  was  less  cruel  than  aforetime. 
Not  long  afterwards  he  entered  Rome,  and  crossed  to 
Sicily.  But  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign  by  the 
judgment  of  Almighty  God,  he  lost  his  kingdom  with 

his  life."  ^ 

Soon  after  this  meeting,  in  543,  Benedict  died,  leaving 
his  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  as  a  kind  of  beacon- 
light  shining  through  the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the 
years  that  followed.     The  rule  that  Benedict  drew  up 
for  his  monks  was  adopted  by  other  monasteries  till 
it  became,  and  remained  for  hundreds  of  years,  the 
monastic  rule  for  all  the  monks  of  the  west. 
The  Regula     Up  to  this  time  the  monasteries  of  Western  Europe 
Benedict    ^ad  adopted  rules  from  the  east,  but  had  been  very  lax 
in  discipline.     Benedict's  Regula  provided  a  uniform 
system  of  monastic  hfe,  strict  enough  to  curb  the  hot 
passions  and  self-will  of  the  time,  yet  not  so  strict  as 
to  be  impossible  to  enforce.    Benedict  himself  describes 
them  as  **  a  school  of  Divine  service,  in  which  nothing 
too  heavy  or  rigorous  will  be  estabHshed  ".     The  two 
central  principles  of  the  Regula  are  labour  and  obedi- 
ence.    Every  monk  must  spend  seven  hours  a  day  in 

1  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  iv.,  489. 


manual  labour  and  two  hours  in  reading.  He  must 
also  yield  prompt  and  wilHng  obedience  to  the  commands 
of  the  abbot,  who,  however,  was  not  an  absolute 
monarch  over  his  little  realm,  since  he  was  obliged  to 
consult  the  monks  in  chapter  about  all  questions  of  im- 
portance affecting  the  monastery.  On  the  death  of  an 
abbot,  his  successor  was  to  be  elected  by  the  monks. 
Every  monastery  was  to  have  its  own  mill,  bakery  and 
gardens,  so  that  the  monks  would  not  be  obliged  to  de- 
pend on  the  outside  world  for  supplies.  Hospitality  was 
to  be  offered  freely  to  strangers  and  to  the  poor.  *'  Let 
every  stranger  be  received,"  says  the  rule,  '*  as  though  he 
were  Christ  Himself,  for  it  is  Christ  Himself  who  shall 
one  day  say  to  us,  *  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  Me 
in  '."  Absolute  community  of  goods  existed  within  the 
monastery,  every  monk  being  obliged,  on  admission,  to 
renounce  all  private  property. 

The  monks  were  recruited  from  two  sources.  There 
were,  first,  the  children  entrusted  by  their  parents  to 
the  monastery ;  and,  secondly,  the  men  of  mature  age 
who  sought  shelter  in  monastic  life  from  the  troubles 
and  temptations  of  the  world.  According  to  Benedict's 
rule,  these  candidates  were  to  be  subjected  to  severe 
tests  and  a  year  of  probation  as  novices  before  they  were 
admitted  to  membership.  Once  admitted,  they  bound 
themselves  by  the  strictest  vows  to  remain  for  life  in  the 
monastic  order. 

The  rules  regulate  the  life  of  the  monks  in  every  de- 
tail. Seven  times  a  day  they  were  to  gather  in  the 
chapel  for  services,  which  consisted  largely  of  Psalms 
chanted  by  the  monks.     At  meals,  which  were  simple. 


70 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


BENEDICT  OF  NURSIA  AND  COLUMBAN 


71 


Irish 
missions 


Columbau, 
543-615 


but  adequate,  each  monk  served  in  turn.  They  slept, 
not  in  separate  cells,  but  in  one  long  dormitory,  and  by 
the  rules  of  the  order  were  to  sleep  in  their  day-clothes 
and  shoes,  and  to  train  themselves  to  do  with  very  little 

sleep. 

So  completely  did  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  supersede 
all  other  monastic  rules  in  Western  Europe  that  Charles 
the  Great,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  ordered  a 
careful  inquiry  to  be  made  as  to  whether  there  were 
any  monks  in  his  dominions  who  observed  any  other 
rule  than  that  of  St.  Benedict.  And  later  monastic 
rules,  such  as  those  of  Cluny  in  the  tenth  century,  or 
of  Citeaux  in  the  twelfth,  were  only  attempts  to  inter- 
pret, in  relation  to  the  needs  of  later  times,  the  Regida 
of  the  Father  of  Western  monasticism. 

The  age  that  followed  the  death  of  Benedict  was  the 
great  missionary  age  of  Western  monasticism. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  tell  in  detail  the  story  of  the 
labours  of  the  monks  who  carried  the  Christian  faith  to 
the  Teutonic  and  Slavonic  peoples  of  Western  Europe. 
One  of  the  greatest  of  them,  Columban,  may  serve  as  a 
type  for  the  rest.  In  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries 
Ireland  became  a  great  centre  of  Hterary  culture  and  of 
missionary  effort.  Its  schools  helped  to  keep  alive  the 
study  of  the  great  Latin  authors,  whose  works  were  in 
danger  of  being  forgotten,  and  its  missionaries  went  out 
into  all  lands  of  Western  Europe. 

Columban  was  born  in  Ireland  in  the  same  year  that 
Benedict  died  at  Monte  Cassino.  He  was  educated  in 
the  liberal  arts  of  grammar,  rhetoric  and  geometry,  and 
fled  to  monastic  Hfe  to  escape  the  allurements  of  the 


world.  He  went  first  to  Bangor  and  then,  with  twelve 
monks  as  his  companions,  to  Gaul,  where,  finding  re- 
ligion and  morality  at  a  low  ebb,  he  set  himself  to  the  task 
of  reviving  them.  He  then  settled  in  Burgundy  under 
King  Gontram,  who  gave  him  a  disused  castle  on  the  site 
of  an  old  Koman  town  at  Luxeuil,  in  the  forest  country 
of  the  Vosges  mountains.  There  a  great  monastery 
grew  up,  over  which  Columban  exercised  stern  dis- 
cipline. His  rule  was  much  stricter  than  that  of  St. 
Benedict — too  strict,  indeed,  to  be  kept  by  any  but  an 
elect  few. 

Columban's  Irish  customs  soon  brought  him  into 
contest  with  the  Bishops  of  Gaul,  and  to  this  was 
added  a  contest  with  Brunhilda  and  her  grandson,  who 
had  succeeded  Gontram  in  593  as  king  in  Burgundy. 
As  a  result  he  was  expelled  from  Luxeuil.  After  visit- 
ing the  kings  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia  he  determined 
to  undertake  the  directly  missionary  work  to  which  he 
had  long  been  drawn  and  settled  at  Bregentz  among 
the  still  heathen  Alemanni.  His  chief  helper  was  Gall 
— the  apostle  of  Swiss  Christianity  and  founder  of  the 
far-famed  monastery  of  St.  Gall.  The  methods  of  the 
missionaries  were  not  those  best  calculated  to  avert  op- 
position. We  read  of  their  throwing  the  idols  of  the 
people  into  the  lake  and  even  burning  down  the 
temples.  They  were  reduced  to  living  on  such  fruits 
and  fish  as  they  could  find  for  themselves.  Obliged  at 
last  to  leave  Alemannia,  Columban  crossed  the  Alps  into 
Italy,  and  found  his  way  to  the  Court  of  Agilulf,  the 
Lombard  king,  whose  wife,  TheodeHnda  of  Bavaria, 
had  already  done  much  to  bring  Christianity  to  the  Lom- 


72 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


Bobbio  bards.  Agilulf  gave  Columban  some  land  at  Bobbio  in 
the  Apennines ;  and  there  he  built  a  monastery  which 
became  a  great  missionary  centre  for  the  conversion 
of  the  Lombards  from  Arianism.  In  his  old  age  he 
left  Bobbio  to  pass  his  closing  days  in  solitude  at 
Trebbia,  and  there  he  died  in  615. 

Columban's  rule  gradually  gave  place  in  the 
monasteries  he  had  founded  to  the  milder  and  more 
practicable  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  and  the  three  great 
monasteries  of  Luxeuil,  St.  Gall  and  Bobbio  remained 
for  long  as  centres  of  light  and  learning  in  Burgundy, 
Switzerland  and  Northern  Italy.  From  Luxeuil  the 
monastic  system  spread  into  Neustria,  and  a  number 
of  daughter  monasteries  grew  up,  of  which  Jumieges 
and  Eemiremont  are  the  most  famous. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 


THE  RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM 


IN  an  earlier  chapter  we  have  traced  the  history  ofneraciius, 
the  Empire  to  the  accession  of  HeracHus  in  610. 
The  new  Emperor  succeeded  to  an  Empire  that  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  dissolution.       The  Slavs  were  pouring 
across  the  Balkans  and  the  Persians  had  carried  their 
attacks  into  the  heart  of  Asia  Minor.     To  meet  these 
dangers    Heraclius  had  an   army  disorganised  by  mis- 
management, an  empty  treasury  and  a  corrupt  body  of 
officials.     Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  strange 
that  for  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign  he  could  do  little 
to  make  headway  against  the  invaders.     Disaster  fol- 
lowed  disaster.      In  613  Damascus   fell,  and   in   the 
following  year  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Persian 
king,  Chosroes,  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  over  Christendom. 
Two  years  later  Egypt  fell,  almost  without  resistance, 
into  the  hands  of  the  Persians.     So  hopeless  did  the 
prospect  appear  that  Heraclius  is  said  to  have  considered 
the  plan  of  moving  the  capital  of  the  Empire  to  Carth- 
age.      But    the  rumour   of   his  intentions  roused    the 
people  of    Constantinople  to  new  energy.     A  kind  of 
crusade  was  proclaimed  by  the  clergy,  who  offered  the 
wealth   of   the    Church    to    equip   the    armies   of   the 

73 


74 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


Empire.  Most  important  of  all,  Heraclius  resolved  no 
longer  to  entrust  the  war  to  his  generals,  but  to  assume 
Campaigns  Supreme  command  himself.  After  patching  up  a  treaty 
622-62?'  with  the  Avars,  who  had  actually  penetrated  within 
forty  miles  of  Constantinople  itself,  Heraclius  started 
for  the  east,  where  in  six  years  of  strenuous  warfare 
he  proved  himself  the  greatest  general  of  his  age.  It 
is  impossible  to  tell  in  detail  the  story  of  Heraclius' 
campaigns,  which  closed  with  a  great  victory  at  Nineveh 
and  the  sack  of  Chosroes'  palace  near  Ctesiphon. 
Meanwhile,  in  626,  the  Avars,  acting  as  allies  of  the 
Persians,  besieged  Constantinople,  which  was  splendidly 
defended  by  Bonus  the  patrician  and  by  the  Eoman 
fleet,  which  guarded  the  Bosphorus  and  so  prevented 
the  Persians  from  sending  help  to  their  allies.  In  028 
Heraclius  came  home  in  triumph,  bringing  peace  to  the 
Empire  and  the  spoils  of  Jerusalem,  including  the 
**  True  Cross,"  which  the  Persians  had  been  compelled 
to  surrender. 
Birth  and  But  whilc  Persia  and  the  Empire  were  fighting  out 
Moham-^ ""  their  long  contest,  a  new  power  was  rising  in  the  east, 
^'  ^'^'  which  was  destined  to  sweep  both  away.  In  570,  five 
years  after  the  death  of  Justinian,  and  two  years  after 
the  Lombard  invasion  of  Italy,  Mohammed  was  born, 
at  Mecca,  an  important  commercial  town  in  Southern 
Arabia. 

The  Arabs  of  this  district  had  attained  to  a  certain 
measure  of  civilisation,  and  lived  under  a  strict  system 
of  tribal  law.  Their  religion  was  a  kind  of  polytheism, 
each  tribe  having  its  own  tutelary  deities.  A  supreme 
God    (Allah)   was    vaguely  conceived    of  behind  these 


THE  RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM 


75 


tribal  gods,  but  the  whole  religious  system  was  effete 
and  had  little  influence  over  conduct  or  life. 

Mohammed's  family  was  a  poor  one,  but  at  the  age 
of  twenty-four  he  entered  commercial  life  as  partner 
with  a  widow  named  Khadija,  whom  he  shortly  after- 
wards married.  Through  some  relatives  of  his  wife 
he  came  into  contact  with  a  body  of  religious  reformers, 
the  **  Hanifs,"  who  sought  for  the  secret  of  holiness  of 
life  in  the  rejection  of  polytheism  and  complete  submis- 
sion {Islam)  to  the  will  of  Allah. 

Influenced  by  them,  he  began  to  spend  long  periods 
in  prayer  and  meditation,  till  at  length  he  became  con- 
scious of  a  mission  to  teach  the  truths  he  had  learned 
to  the  men  of  his  city.  His  teaching  was  received 
with  bitter  hostility,  and  those  who  avowed  themselves  The 

.  .  "Heriga  " 

his  followers  were  persecuted  and  in  some  cases  dnven  622 
out  of  the  city.  At  last  Mohammed  resolved  on  a 
decisive  step,  and  in  622,  having  sent  his  followers  on 
before  him,  he  fled  to  Medina.  This  is  the  celebrated 
"  Heriga "  or  Flight  of  Mohammed,  from  which  the 
followers  of  the  prophet  date  the  rise  of  the  new 
rehgion.  At  Medina  the  new  prophet  soon  found  him- 
self undisputed  master  of  the  city,  and  organised  a 
political  commonwealth  under  laws  drawn  up  by  him. 
His  system  was  designed  to  bind  together  all  who  ac- 
cepted it  in  the  closest  bonds  of  union,  and  to  sever  them 
from  the  unbelieving  world  by  a  great  gulf.  He  bor- 
rowed something  from  Judaism,  and  something  from 
the  corrupt  forms  of  Christianity  with  which  he  had 
come  in  contact  in  Southern  Arabia.  But  the  funda- 
mental article  of  his  creed — the  unity  of  God — he  had 


76 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


learned  from  the  Hanifs.  With  them  it  was  a  truth 
for  quiet  meditation,  but  in  the  hands  of  the  prophet 
it  became  the  war-cry  of  a  new  contest  that  shook  the 
Arab  world  to  its  foundations.  In  December,  623, 
Mohammed  and  his  followers  won  the  battle  of  Bekr 
over  a  force  of  Arabs  from  Mecca,  and  from  that  time 
the  external  history  of  Mohammedanism  is  the  history 
of  an  advancing  tide  of  conquest  that  swept  over  all 
the  east,  rolled  as  a  devastating  wave  over  the  provinces 
of  Egypt  and  North  Africa,  and  was  checked  at  last  in 
the  west  only  by  the  barrier  of  the  Pyrenees  and  the 
sword  of  Charles  Martel. 

Progress  of     Before  Mohammed  died,  in  632,  all  Arabia  was  under 

medan?sm  ^is  sway.  His  succcssor,  or  "  Khalifa,"  Abu  Bekr,  after 
suppressing  a  rebellion  among  the  Arab  followers  of  the 
prophet,  launched  two  great  armies  against  the  Persians 
and  the  Empire. 

Persia,  641  The  couqucst  of  Persia  was  rapid  and  complete.  By 
the  end  of  641  all  the  lands  over  which  the  Persian 
king  had  ruled  passed  under  the  sway  of  the  Moslem 
power.  In  the  same  year  Egypt  was  overrun  and 
absorbed,  almost  without  resistance,  in  the  ever-growing 
territories  of  the  Arab  conquerors. 

Syria,  634  Meanwhile  the  invasion  of  Syria,  checked  for  a  few 
months  by  the  forces  of  the  Empire,  went  forward  under 
the  leadership  of  the  fierce  leader  Khaled,  the  **  Sword  of 
God  ".  In  634  the  invaders  won  the  terrific  battle  of 
Yermuk,  almost  exterminating  a  force  of  eighty  thousand 
Imperial  troops.  Damascus  was  sacked  next  year,  and 
Heraclius  took  the  field  in  person,  only  to  find  himself 
helpless  against  the  fierce  fanaticism  of  the  new  foe. 


THE  RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM 


77 


While  these  conquests  were  in  progress,  the  Khalifa  Jerusalem, 
died  and  was  succeeded  by  Omar,  the  greatest  of  all 
the  successors  of  the  prophet.  Under  his  wise  rule  the 
work  of  conquest  went  on.  Antioch  fell  in  637,  and  in 
the  same  year  Jerusalem  surrendered.  So  great  was 
the  veneration  of  the  Moslems  for  the  city  that  they 
accounted  second  only  to  Mecca  in  sacredness,  that 
Omar  crossed  the  desert  expressly  to  receive  its  surrender 
in  person.  On  the  site  of  the  Temple  he  built  the 
great  mosque  that  still  bears  his  name.  With  unusual 
toleration  he  granted  to  the  Christians  the  control  of 
the  Holy  Places. 

Heraclius  lived  to  see  the  whole  province  of  Meso- 
potamia overrun  by  Saracen^  hordes  and  the  sea- 
port of  Caesarea  captured.  He  died  in  641,  just  before 
the  fall  of  Alexandria  and  the  beginning  of  the  attack 
on  Asia  Minor. 

After  a  short  period  of  confusion,  Heraclius  wasconstan- 
succeeded  by  his  grandson  Constantinus,  or  Constans  as  668 
the  Western  chroniclers  call  him.  During  his  boyhood 
the  course  of  Saracen  conquest  went  on,  though  more 
slowly.  Alexandria  was  recaptured  by  the  Empire,  and 
recaptured  again  and  partly  destroyed  by  the  Moslems. 
Part  of  North  Africa  fell  into  their  hands.  They  also 
began  to  develop  a  navy  which  gradually  grew  large 
enough  to  dispute  the  mastery  of  the  Mediterranean 
with  the  Imperial  fleet.  They  won  a  great  victory  in  a 
naval  engagement  off  the  coast  of  Lycia  in  652,  the 
Emperor  himself  only   escaping   with  difficulty.     But 

^  The  name  Saracen,  given  by  Roman  writers  to  the  Arabs,  is  derived 
from  an  Arabic  word  sharki,  meaning  eastern. 


78 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


soon  after  this  the  Empire  secured  a  respite  through 
the  outbreak  of  civil  war  between  two  rival  candidates 
for  the  KaHphate — Muavia  of  Syria  and  AH  of  Meso- 
potamia. 

Some  years  passed  before  the  Saracen  conquests  were 
resumed.  During  this  time  Constantinus  made  a  last 
attempt  to  reorganise  the  sadly  diminished  provinces  of 
the  Empire,  now  consisting  of  Asia  Minor,  the  western 
part  of  North  Africa,  a  strip  of  country  round  the  coast 
of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  and  some  parts  of  Italy. 
Constantinus  spent  the  last  six  years  of  his  life  in  Italy 
and  Sicily,  trying  to  restore  the  prestige  of  the  Empire 
in  the  West.  After  a  successful  campaign  in  Southern 
Italy  he  settled  at  Syracuse,  within  accessible  reach  of 
North  Africa,  where,  in  668,  the  Saracens  renewed  their 
attacks  on  the  Empire.  Before  his  death,  in  668,  Asia 
Minor  was  also  suffering  from  their  ravages.  For  eight 
CoDstan-  years  Constantine  Pogonatus  (the  bearded),  who  suc- 
'*Pogo-  ceeded,  carried  on  a  struggle  with  the  invaders — the 
668-^678  iiiost  notable  episode  of  the  war  being  a  great  siege  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Saracens,  in  673,  which  ended 
in  their  disastrous  defeat.  The  only  other  event  of  note 
in  the  reign  of  this  Emperor  was  the  arrival  in  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  of  a  new  body  of  invaders,  the  Bul- 
garians. They  were  a  tribe  of  Hunnish  race,  but  they 
soon  began  to  unite  with  the  Slav  tribes  who  were  al- 
ready settled  in  the  district  into  which  they  came,  and 
gradually  lost  their  Hunnish  language  and  character- 
istics. 
Justinian,  On  his  death,  in  685,  Constantine  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Justinian,  a  youth  of  seventeen,  who  was  en- 


THE  RISE  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM 


79 


couraged  by  a  successful  attack  on  the  Bulgarians,  and 
by  the  internal  feuds  that  now  divided  the  Moslem  world,- 
to  attempt  to  reconquer  Syria.  The  campaign  proved 
a  complete  failure,  and  Justinian  developed  into  a 
bloodthirsty  and  cruel  tyrant.  Finally  a  palace  revolt 
drove  him  from  the  throne  and  plunged  the  Empire 
into  twenty  years  of  complete  chaos. 

Meanwhile  the  tide  of  Moslem  conquest  rolled  on.  Moslem 
In  698  Cartha.ge  finally  fell,  and  the  whole  of  North  of^Nm-th 
Africa  passed  under  the  sway  of  the  Saracens.     The    "^*' 
province  had  long  been  divided  by  religious  controversies, 
and  had  already  been  harried  by  the  Vandals,  but  the 
ruins  that  still  remain  along  the  coast  of  North  Africa 
suffice  to  show  how  rich  and  prosperous  the  great  cities 
that  fringed  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  had  been 
in  the  days  when  Rome  dwelt  secure  and  unchallenged. 

Fifteen  years  later,  Sardinia  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Saracens,  and  Cappadocia  and  Pontus  were  overrun  in 
the  following  years.  The  doom  of  the  Empire  seemed 
inevitable,  and  an  expedition  was  already  marching 
against  Constantinople  when  Leo  the  Isaurian,  a  general 
in  the  Roman  army,  won  the  Imperial  throne,  and 
began  the  struggle  that  was  destined  to  preserve  Con- 
stantinople for  centuries  as  the  great  bulwark  of  Europe 
against  the  followers  of  the  prophet. 

A  little  before  this  check  in  the  east  the  Saracens  Spain,  710 
had  won  their  last  great  success  in  the  west.  For  a 
century  the  Visigothic  kingdom  in  Spain  had  been 
crumbling  into  decay.  Originally  Arian,  the  Visigothic 
kings  had  now  become  stern  champions  of  orthodoxy, 
and  Jews  and  Arians  alike  suffered  bitter  persecutions. 


80 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


About  the  year  710  the  storm  of  Moslem  invasion 
broke  on  the  disorganised  and  enfeebled  kingdom.  A 
vast  horde  of  Arabs  and  Moors,  landing  at  the  spot 
(Gibraltar)  that  still  bears  the  name  of  their  leader, 
Tarik  (Gebel  Tarik  =  the  hill  of  Tarik),  smote  the  last 
Gothic  king,  Eoderic,  in  a  great  battle  on  the  banks  of 
the  Guadelete,  and  within  three  years  all  Spain,  ex- 
cepting the  mountainous  districts  of  the  North,  had 
passed  into  their  hands.  A  land  that  impotent 
sovereigns,  fanatical  clergy,  turbulent  nobles  and  down- 
trodden serfs  had  left  helpless  in  its  hour  of  need,  was 
now  destined,  under  the  rule  of  great  Moslem  chiefs,  to 
become  a  centre  of  art  and  learning  and  industry. 

Except  for  Italy  and  Greece,  and  the  lands  fringing  the 
Balkan  Peninsula,  the  whole  of  the  coast-line  of  the 
Mediterranean  had  now  passed  under  the  sway  of  the 
Mohammedan  power.  In  the  east  the  battlements  of 
Constantinople  still  frowned  defiance  across  the  Bos- 
phorus,  and  in  the  west  the  strong  nations  beyond  the 
Pyrenees  were  ready  to  dispute,  in  one  great  day  of 
battle,  the  further  advance  of  the  crescent  flag. 

The  menace  of  this  great  advance  of  Moslem  power 
awakened  among  the  still  unconquered  peoples  of 
Northern  Europe  a  new  sense  of  common  interest. 
Christianity  itself  was  now  in  danger,  and  watching  for 
some  champion  to  arise  to  organise  the  forces  of  resist- 
ance. Around  such  a  champion  there  would  inevitably 
gather  all  the  associations  of  the  Eoman  Imperial  idea. 
So  in  less  than  a  hundred  years  after  the  Saracen  conquest 
of  Spain,  Charles  the  Great  was  crowned  in  the  great 
basilica  of  Kome,  and  the  Holy  Koman  Empire  began. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  THE  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY 

\\^E  left  Italy  cleared  of  her  Gothic  invaders  and 
ruled  by  Imperial  officers.  But  in  reality  much 
of  Northern  Italy  had  become  a  depopulated  desert, 
whose  empty  and  uncultivated  plains  were  only  broken 
by  an  occasional  garrison  town.  Into  these  ownerless  Coming  of 
territories  there  came,  in  568,  a  new  tribe  of  barbarian  bards,  568 
immigrants,  the  Lombards.  Among  the  various  Teu- 
tonic tribes  they  had  been  almost  the  last  to  move 
southward,  and  for  nearly  a  century  had  occupied  the 
lands  along  the  Danube  adjoining  those  of  the  Ostro- 
goths and  the  Gepidae.  Their  name  of  Lombards 
{Langobardi)  was  probably  derived  from  the  long  beards 
that  gave  a  ferocious  aspect  to  these  fierce  warriors.^  A 
detachment  of  them  fought  as  mercenaries  under  Narses 
in  552,  so  gaining  their  earHest  knowledge  of  Italy; 
and  fifteen  years  later,  after  assisting  the  Avars  to  ex- 
terminate the  Gepidae,  the  whole  tribe  moved  south 
under  its  king,  Alboin,  and  poured  almost  unopposed 
into  the  plains  of  Northern  Italy.  One  by  one  the 
Roman  garrison  towns  surrendered,  till  Ravenna  alone 

'  other  derivations  have  been  suggested,  from  barta^  an  axe,  or  bord, 
a  shore,  so  making  the  name  mean  •*  men  of  the  long  axe  "  or  *'  long- 
shoremen ". 

6  81 


!' 


82 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


Death  of  remained  as  an  Imperial  stronghold.  But  the  new 
Aiboin,  572  j^^^l^^^^  kingdom  had  scarcely  been  organised  when 
Alboin  died.  The  story  of  his  death  is  dramatically 
told  by  Paul  the  Deacon,  the  historian  of  the  Lombards. 
After  the  defeat  of  the  Gepidae,  Alboin  had  the  skull  of 
the  Gepid  King,  Cunimund,  whose  daughter  Kosamund 
he  had  married,  made  into  a  drinking  bowl,  and  in  a 
drunken  carouse  in  Verona,  in  the  year  572,  he  called 
for  Eosamund  and  bade  her  drink  joyfully  from  her 
father's  head.  Enraged  by  the  insult,  Eosamund  pro- 
cured the  assassination  of  the  King. 
Lombard  Deprived  of  their  leader,  the  Lombards  broke  up  into 
in  Central  smaller  parties,  each  under  a  chief,  and  spread  farther 
^^*^^  and  farther  into  Central  and  Southern  Italy.  They 
made  no  attempt  at  systematic  conquest,  but  settled 
wherever  fancy  led  them,  so  that  Central  Italy  gradually 
became  dotted  over  with  small  Lombard  settlements, 
intermixed  with  those  of  the  native  Italians.  The 
native  population  was  probably  spared  and  reduced  to 
a  condition  of  serfdom.  Farther  south  the  two  great 
Duchies  of  Spoleto  and  Beneventum  grew  up.  Only 
a  few  fragments  of  Italy  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Empire,  chiefly  along  the  coast,  which  possessed  no 
attractions  to  people  like  the  Lombards  unaccustomed 
to  a  seafaring  life.  These  scattered  possessions  of 
the  Empire  were  ruled  by  the  Exarch  of  Eavenna, 
though  the  actual  extent  of  his  authority  over  Eome 
or  Naples  must  have  been  very  slight. 

It  would  be  a  tedious  task  to  trace  in  detail  the 
history  of  the  Lombard  kingdom,  which  was  re-estab- 
hshed  in  583  by  the  election  of  Authari.     His  marriage 


Authari, 
683-590 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    83 

with  Theodelinda,  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
brought  the   Lombards  in   touch   with   Christian   in- 


ITALY 

in  the  7^-  Century 


Imperial  Territory 


L—j L 


English  Miles 


so    2S      0 


100 


200 


fluences,  and    about  the  year  590  the  Lombard  king, 
Agilulf,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  and  the 


84 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


I    I 


Agilulf. 
590-615 


hand  of  Theodelinda,  was  baptised  with  many  of  his 
followers. 

The  first  half  of  the  seventh  century  was  a  time  of 
prosperity  and  expansion  for  the  Lombard  kingdom. 
District  after  district  was  won  from  the  Empire,  which 
was  too  much  occupied  in  Eastern  wars  to  be  able  to 
defend  its  provinces  in  the  West.  Agilulf,  who  reigned 
for  twenty-five  years,  was  succeeded,  after  a  short  in- 
terval, by  another  great  ruler,  Eotharis,  who  is  known 
in  history  as  the  author  of  the  first  Code  of  Lombard 
Rotharis,  Laws,  drawn  up  *'  with  the  counsel  and  consent  of  our 
636-652  advisers,  and  of  all  our  armed  forces  ".  Rotharis'  code 
shows  little  trace  of  Roman  influence  ;  evidently  the 
process  of  fusion  between  the  races  had  hardly  yet 
begun. 

While  the  Lombards  were  settHng  in  Northern  Italy, 
Rome  was  passing  slowly  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Empire 
and  into  the  hands  of  her  new  rulers,  the  Popes. 
Rise  of  the  From  the  first  beginning  of  the  Christian  Church, 
Papacy  j^ome,  as  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  and  as  the  Church 
associated  with  the  two  great  apostles  Peter  and  Paul, 
gave  to  its  bishop  a  position  of  special  honour  among 
the  bishops  of  the  west.  And  in  the  centuries  that 
followed  several  causes  tended  to  increase  the  import- 
ance of  the  Roman  See.  In  the  Arian  controversy  of 
the  fourth  century  the  bishop  of  Rome  had  been  the 
strongest  champion  of  orthodoxy  in  the  west,  and  when 
Constantine  moved  the  capital  of  his  Empire  to  Con- 
stantinople the  bishop  became  the  most  important 
figure  in  the  old  capital.  In  the  east  the  bishops  of 
the  three  great  cities  of  Constantinople,  Antioch  and 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    85 

Alexandria  were  granted  the  title  of  Patriarch  ^  and  a 
certain  primacy  of  dignity  over  the  other  dioceses  of 
the  east.  In  the  west  the  only  other  bishop  whose 
position  could  at  all  rival  that  of  the  bishop  of  Rome 
was  the  bishop  of  Carthage,  and  when  the  Vandal  in- 
vasion swept  much  of  the  organised  Church  life  of  North 
Africa  away,  the  Roman  See  became  undisputed  head 
of  the  younger  Christian  Churches  that  were  gradually 
growing  up  in  lUyria,  Gaul,  Britain  and  elsewhere. 

At  this  period  the  bishop  of  Rome  may  be  regarded  as 
exercising  four  kinds  of  authority.  As  bishop  he  exer- 
cised immediate  control  over  the  city  of  Rome ;  as 
metropolitan  he  superintended  the  seven  bishops  whose 
dioceses  lay  around  the  city — the  seven  *'  cardinal- 
bishops,"  as  they  were  afterwards  called  ;  as  patriarch 
he  had  a  somewhat  undefined  authority  within  the 
whole  of  the  Prefecture  of  Italy  ;  while  as  the  senior 
Bishop  of  Western  Europe  he  claimed  a  general  right 
to  intervene  in  all  Church  matters  where  the  interests 
of  the  whole  Church  were  affected.  The  emperors  of 
the  fifth  century,  ruling  either  at  Constantinople  or 
Ravenna,  were  not  unwilling  to  concede  large  powers 
of  jurisdiction  to  the  Roman  bishops,  while  keeping  the 
Patriarchs  of  Constantinople  more  strictly  under  their 
own  authority. 

The  decline  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria  gradually 
left  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  as  the  senior  bishop 
in  the  east,  and  in  the  28th  canon  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon  an  attempt  was  made  to  place  the  two  Sees 

^  The  Bishop  of  Jerusalem  was  also  accorded  the  title  and  status  of 
'*  Patriarch,"  but  without  any  defined  area  of  jurisdiction. 


il 


86 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


of  Constantinople  and  Kome  in  a  position  of  equal 
dignity.  But  this  canon  Rome  declined  to  accept, 
and  the  long  contest  between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Churches  may  be  said  to  have  begun  from  that  point. 
Leo  the  Leo  the  Great  (440-461)  was,  among  all  the  early 

Great    440-     •  . 

461  '  bishops  of  Rome,  the  one  who  did  most  to  extend  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  See,  both  by  the  vigour  with 
which  he  asserted  the  authority  of  the  bishop  of  that  see 
as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  by  the  ability  with 
which  he  intervened  in  theological  controversies,  both 
in  the  east,  where  he  led  the  battle  against  Euty- 
chianism,!  and  in  Spain,  where  he  supported  the  orthodox 
party  against  the  Priscillianists.^  Leo  was  incomparably 
the  greatest  figure  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  of  his  time, 
and  though  his  successors  were  men  of  less  striking 
character  they  kept  most  of  the  ground  that  he  had 
won. 

With  the  Arian  Theodoric  the  bishops  of  Rome 
generally  kept  on  good  terms.  We  have  already  seen 
the  only  notable  exception  in  the  case  of  John  I.  whose 
embassy  to  Constantinople  ended  so  disastrously  for 
himself  and  the  peace  of  the  world. 

1  The  Eutychians  were  the  followers  of  Eutyches,  a  monk  of  the  fifth 
century  who  asserted  that  our  Lord's  human  nature  was  absorbed  in  the 
Divine.  His  opinions  were  condemned  at  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  but 
were  revived  in  the  later  Monophysite  and  Monothelite  heresies — heresies 
that  taught  that  our  Lord  has  only  one  nature,  or  one  will.  The  Pris- 
cillianists  were  a  sect  that  arose  in  Spain  in  the  fourth  century,  partly 
as  a  reaction  against  the  worldly  tendencies  of  the  Church.  Their 
doctrinal  teaching  appears  to  have  been  a  sort  of  Gnosticism.  They 
were  ruthlessly  stamped  out  by  a  policy  of  persecution,  in  which  their 
leader,  Priscillian,  suffered  death. 


The  Pope 
and  the 
Empire 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    87 

The  Pope,^  as  we  may  now  begin  to  call  him,  was 
elected  by  the  **  clergy,  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,"  but 
as  elections  had  not  infrequently  led  to  faction  fights  and 
disputes,  Theodoric  tried  to  introduce  a  more  satisfac- 
tory method  of  appointment  in  526  by  nominating  FeHx 
as  Pope ;  and  Felix,  in  his  turn,  issued  a  letter  to  the 
**  clergy  and  senate  "  nominating  Boniface,  the  Arch- 
deacon, as  his  successor.  A  period  of  confusion  and 
party  contests  followed,  and  while  this  was  going  on  the 
Gothic  rule  in  Italy  came  to  an  end,  and  the  Imperial 
authority  again  became  supreme.  For  some  time  the 
Popes  were  the  nominees  of  the  faction  in  power  at  the 
Byzantine  Court.  VigiHus  (537-555)  and  Pelagius  I. 
(555-560)  were  imposed  on  Rome  by  the  emperors, 
and  they  were  followed  by  three  insignificant  Popes, 
and  then  by  the  restorer  of  the  Papacy,  Gregory  the 
Great. 

By  this  time  the  Lombard  invasions  had  profoundly  The  Pope 
changed  the  position  of  the  Bishops  of  Rome  towards  Lombards 
the  Empire.  For  not  only  did  the  presence  in  Italy  of 
a  common  foe  draw  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  into 
friendly  relations,  but  also  the  Lombards  practically 
cut  ofif  the  territories  around  Rome  from  the  Imperial 
lands  round  Ravenna,  and  so  threw  the  Popes  on  their 
own  resources  for  defence  and  organisation. 

For  centuries  the  Bishops  of  Rome  had  been  re- 
ceiving grants   of  lands  around  Rome  and  elsewhere. 

1  The  title  "  Papa  "  (father)  was  originally  given  to  all  Bishops,  and 
is  now  used  in  the  Greek  Church  for  priests  (as  the  title  father  is  used 
by  the  Roman  Church).  It  was  not  till  1076  that  the  title  of  Pope  was 
definitely  limited  by  the  Western  Church  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 


88 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    89 


Gregory 
the  Great, 
540-604 


**  Ever  since  the  restriction  of  the  Eastern  Empire 
had  emancipated  the  ecclesiastical  potentate  from  secular 
control,  the  first  and  most  abiding  object  of  his  schemes 
and  prayers  had  been  the  acquisition  of  territorial  wealth 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital.  He  had  indeed  a 
sort  of  justification,  for  Rome,  a  city  with  neither  trade 
nor  industry,  was  crowded  with  poor,  for  whom  it  de- 
volved on  the  bishop  to  provide  "  (Bryce) .  The  revenues 
of  this  Patrimonium  Petri,  as  it  was  called,  were  ap- 
plied not  only  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  but  also  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Pope  and  his  clergy,  and  it  was 
natural  that  the  idea  of  territorial  sovereignty  should 
grow  up  in  connection  with  it  as  soon  as  Imperial  au- 
thority had  ceased  to  be  more  than  nominal. 

Gregory  the  Great  came  of  a  noble  Roman  family  and 
was  born  about  the  year  540.  While  studying  for  his 
father's  profession  of  magistrate,  Gregory  was  taught  to 
love  religion  by  the  precepts  and  example  of  his  mother 
Silvia.  When  he  was  only  a  little  over  thirty  years  of 
age  he  was  appointed  by  Justin  II.  as  Pnttor  Urbis, 
an  office  of  great  importance  and  dignity.  But  on  his 
father's  death  a  few  years  later,  he  renounced  the  secu- 
lar life,  disposed  of  the  considerable  sum  that  he  had 
inherited  in  founding  seven  monasteries,  and  himself 
became  a  monk.  From  austerities  that  were  perman- 
ently injuring  his  health  he  was  rescued  by  Pope 
Benedict  I.,  who  ordained  him  as  deacon  and  sent  him 
to  Constantinople  as  his  envoy.  Gregory  stayed  some 
time  at  Constantinople,  and  then  returned  to  become 
abbot  of  the  monastery  that  he  had  founded  in  Rome. 

In  590  Pelasius  II.  died,  leaving  Rome  in  dire  distress, 


with  the  Lombards  ravaging  outside  the  walls,  and  the 
plague  and  famine  destroying  within.  The  general 
instinct  turned  to  Gregory  as  the  man  for  the  hour,  and 
he  was  unanimously  elected,  in  spite  of  his  own  reluct- 
ance, as  Pope.  His  first  work  was  to  call  for  a  season 
of  repentance,  and  to  institute  processional  litanies.  A 
monument  of  these  litanies  still  remains  in  the  name  of 
the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  in  Rome,  for  it  was  said  that  on 
the  site  on  which  that  castle  now  stands  Gregory  saw, 
as  the  procession  went  by,  the  avenging  angel  sheathing 
his  sword. 

The  task  that  lay  before  the  new  Pope  was  a  suffici-  Gregory's 
ently  discouraging  one.  As  he  himself  says,  the  Roman  '"''^*"'"''' 
Church  was  *' hke  an  old  and  violently  scattered  ship, 
admitting  water  on  all  sides,  its  timbers  rotten,  shaken 
by  daily  storms,  and  sounding  of  wreck  ".  Immediately 
on  his  accession  he  set  about  the  work  of  internal  re- 
form. He  regulated  the  monasteries,  placed  their 
business  arrangements  in  the  hands  of  laymen,  en- 
deavoured to  enforce  a  rule  of  celibacy  among  the  secular 
clergy,  wrote  a  manual  of  episcopal  duties,  the  Regula 
Pastor alis,  which  remained  for  centuries  a  text-book 
for  all  bishops  of  the  West.  He  also  introduced  those 
changes  in  the  method  of  chanting  that  are  still  associ- 
ated with  his  name,  and  established  schools  of  **  Gre- 
gorian "  music  in  Rome. 

He  next  proceeded  to  place  on  a  business  footing  the 
administration  of  the  ''  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,"  appoint- 
ing rectores  or  defensores  to  manage  the  lands  that  be- 
longed to  the  see,  in  Italy,  Africa,  Gaul  and  elsewhere. 
We  see  from  his  letters  how  carefully  he  supervised  the 


i 


90 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Gregory 
and  the 
Empire 


work  of  these  officers,  and  how  earnestly  he  tried  to 
guard  against  oppression  or  misgovemment  on  the 
estates  that  belonged  to  the  Church.  The  revenues 
received  from  these  lands  were  divided  into  four  equal 
parts,  for  the  Pope,  the  clergy,  the  fabric  and  services  of 
the  churches,  and  the  poor.  Gregory's  own  benevolences 
were  on  a  colossal  scale. 

While  this  work  of  internal  reform  was  in  progress, 
external  affairs  claimed  the  attention  of  the  Pope.  The 
relations  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope  needed 
defining,  the  raids  of  the  Lombards  required  to  be 
curbed,  and  the  task  of  evangelising  the  still  heathen 
parts  of  Europe  awaited  fulfilment. 

Gregory's  relations  with  the  Empire  need  not  be 
considered  in  detail.  While  recognising  the  Imperial 
authority,  Gregory  guarded  jealously  the  independence 
of  the  Church  in  spiritual  things,  and  more  than  once 
he  came  into  collision  with  Maurice  on  such  questions 
as  the  appointment  of  bishops.  These  coUisions  may 
serve  to  explain  the  extraordinary  letter  of  congratulation 
written  by  Gregory  to  Phocas  after  his  cold-blooded 
murder  of  Maurice  and  his  children.  The  relations 
between  the  Empire  and  the  Pope  were  further  com- 
plicated by  a  quarrel  that  arose  between  John  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  and  Gregory,  due  to  the 
claim  made  by  the  former  to  the  title  of  "universal 
bishop" — a  claim  that  Gregory  passionately  resented, 
but  did  not  succeed  in  inducing  the  Patriarch  to  sur- 
render. Gregory's  chosen  title  for  himself— a  title 
ever  since  borne  by  the  Popes — was  **  servus  servorum 
Dei ". 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    91 

With  the  Lombards  Gregory  tried  to  establish  friendly  Gregory 
relations.  The  marriage  of  Theodelinda  gave  the  Pope  Lombards 
a  friend  at  the  Lombard  Court,  but  the  task  of  protect- 
ing Rome  from  Lombard  ravages  was  made  more 
difficult  by  the  unwillingness  of  Romanus,  the  Exarch 
of  Ravenna,  to  agree  to  any  peace  with  the  invaders. 
More  than  once  Agilulf  threatened  to  besiege  Rome, 
and  the  city  was  reduced  to  great  distress.  But  in  his 
letters  to  the  Emperor,  Gregory  represents  the  exactions 
of  the  Imperial  officers  as  more  grievous  than  even  the 
depredations  of  the  Lombards.  The  Empire  could 
neither  defend  Rome  nor  leave  it  to  itself.  However, 
in  599  Gregory  succeeded  in  bringing  about  a  peace  be- 
tween the  Lombard  king  and  the  exarch. 

It  was  not  only  the  Lombards  from  the  north  who 
proved  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Pope.  The  Dukes  of 
Spoleto  and  Beneventum  were  troublesome  neighbours, 
and  the  exarch  practically  left  to  Gregory  the  task  of 
organising  the  defence  of  the  Imperial  territories  in  the 
south  of  Italy.  **  Gregory  appointed  civil  and  military 
officers  himself.  He  nominated  Constantius  tribune  of 
Naples  when  that  city  was  hard  pressed  by  the  Lom- 
bards, and  entrusted  the  administration  of  Nepi,  in 
Southern  Tuscany,  to  Leontius.  He  made  peace  on 
his  own  account  with  the  Lombards  when  they  were  at 
war  with  the  Imperial  representative,  and  asserted  that 
his  own  station  was  higher  than  that  of  the  exarch." 
All  this  greatly  enhanced  the  prestige  of  the  Papacy, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  those  territorial  claims  that 
were  destined  to  play  so  large  a  part  in  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  Roman  Church. 


92  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Gregory's        Gregory  was  also  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  mission- 
missions     ^^^  activity  of  the  Church.     His  most  notable  achieve- 
ment  in  this  direction  was   the  mission  to  England, 
which  had  lapsed  into  paganism  after  the  Anglo-Saxon 
conquest.      It   was   while   he   was    Abbot  and  Papal 
Secretary  under  Pelagius  that  the  well-known  incident 
is  recorded  to  have  occurred  of  his  meeting  the  North- 
umbrian children  exposed  for  sale  in  the  Forum  of  Rome. 
He  is  said  to  have  actually  started  for  England  when 
the  outcry  of  the  Roman  people  compelled  the  Pope 
to  recall  him.     Eight  years  after  he  became  Pope,  he 
sent  Augustine  on  the  mission  to  England,  the  history 
of   which  belongs  to   Enghsh   rather  than  European 

history.  .    i       * 

Gregory's  pastoral  care  extended  over  the  whole  ot 
Western  Europe.  He  wrote  letters  of  congratulation 
and  good  advice  to  Reccared,  the  Visigothic  king,  on 
his  renunciation  of  Arianism  at  the  Council  of  Toledo 
in  589 ;  he  corresponded  in  friendly  fashion  with  the 
Bishops  of  Gaul  and  their  Prankish  sovereigns  ;  he  tried 
to  wean  the  Irish  bishops,  by  peaceable  discussion,  from 
the  heretical  opinions  that  they  held. 
The  Gregory  died  in  604,  having,  in  his  fifteen  years  ot 

K/eShrule,  raised  the  ''Apostolic  See"  to  a  new  position  ot 
«*^»t^^^y      authority  in  Europe,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  those 
claims  that  reached   their  full   expression   nearly  five 
hundred  years  later. 

For  more  than  a  century  after  the  death  of  Gregory 
the  Papal  chair  was  filled  by  men  of  no  special  import- 
ance, nominees,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  emperor  or 
his  exarch.    The  only  important  exception  was  Martin  I. 


LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY  AND  RISE  OF  THE  PAPACY    93 

(649-653),  whose  opposition  to  the  efforts  of  Constan- 
tinus  to  induce  Monothelites  and  defenders  of  orthodoxy 
to  hve  together  in  peace  brought  him  into  collision 
with  the  Emperor,  who  lured  him  to  Constantinople, 
and  there  arraigned  him  on  a  charge  of  political  intrigue, 
and  had  him  deposed  and  imprisoned  till  his  death  a  few 
months  later. 

The  anarchy  that  followed  the  death  of  Constantine 
V.  once  more  threw  on  the  Popes  the  work  of  provid- 
ing for  their  own  defence,  and  so  helped  to  inaugur- 
ate a  new  period  of  advance  in  the  powers  of  the 
Papacy.  This  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  Rome 
opens  with  the  election  of  Gregory  II.  to  the  Papal  chair 

in  715. 

The  latter  half  of  the  seventh  century  is  also  a  period  The 

.  £    A.U     Lombard 

of  comparative  unimportance  in  the  history  ot  ttie  kingdom 
Lombards.  Rotharis  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  who 
was  shortly  afterwards  murdered,  and  a  nephew  of 
Theodehnda  then  reigned  for  ten  years,  leaving  the 
throne,  on  his  death,  to  his  two  sons.  Between  the 
two  heirs  war  soon  broke  out,  and  Grimoald,  Duke  of 
Beneventum,  seized  the  crown  and  for  nearly  ten  years 
kept  the  Lombard  territories  intact,  in  spite  of  the 
attempts  of  Constantinus  to  re-establish  the  Imperial 
authority.  On  his  death  the  Lombard  nobles  sum- 
moned back  one  of  the  brothers  whom  Grimoald  had 
chased  from  the  kingdom,  Berthani,  whose  seventeen 
years  of  rule  were  a  time  of  peace  and  good  government 
in  the  kingdom. 

His  son  Cunibert,  who  succeeded  on  his  death  in  688, 
was  disturbed   by  rebellions  among  his  nobles,  and  a 


94 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


time  of  civil  wars  between  rival  claimants  to  the  throne 
lasted  till  the  accession  of  Liutprand  in  712. 

Thus  early  in  the  eighth  century  the  Papacy  and  the 
Lombard  crown  passed  almost  simultaneously  into 
stronger  hands,  and  the  history  of  Italy  becomes  once 
more  full  of  interest. 


CHAPTEK  X 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


TN  a  previous  chapter  we  carried  the  history  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  down  to  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century.  After  the  ferocious  record  of  the  rivalries  and 
contests  of  Brunhilda  and  Fredegonda  the  chronicles 
of  the  Merovingian  kings  become  a  dreary  record  of 
ineffective  figures  that  pass  over  the  stage  in  long  suc- 
cession, decorated  with  the  flowing  hair  that  was  the 
sign  of  royalty  among  the  Franks,  but  neither  wielding, 
nor  apparently  desiring,  any  real  power. 

But  as  the  Merovingian  kings  degenerated  their 
power  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  new  body  of  men — 
the  Mayors  of  the  Palace. 

The  title  of  Major  Dovfiiis  or  Magister  Palatii  was  The  Major 
borrowed  from  the  old  Imperial  regime.  The  office  ^^'^''"'^ 
grew  up  naturally  as  the  Frank  government  became 
organised.  Originally  a  household  officer  of  the  Court, 
the  Mayor  of  the  Palace  became,  like  the  Justiciar  in 
Norman  England,  the  king's  right-hand  man,  control- 
ling the  administration  when  the  king  was  at  the  wars, 
and  watching  over  the  relation  of  the  leudes  to  the 
crown.  Where  the  supreme  power  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  minor,  or  of  a  woman,  the  power  of  the  mayor  was 

necessarily  augmented.      From  the  first  there  seems  to 

95 


96 


thf:  dawn  of  medieval  europe 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


97 


have  been  a  difference  between  the  Mayors  of  Neustria 
and  Burgundy,  who  were  the  champions  of  royal 
authority  against  the  nobles,  and  those  of  Austrasia, 
who  appear  rather  as  the  champions  of  the  rights  of  the 
nobles  against  the  Crown.  As  a  result  of  this,  the 
mayoralty  in  Austrasia  tended  to  become  an  hereditary 
office,  held  by  the  leading  noble  family  of  the  kingdom, 
while  the  Mayor  in  Neustria  is  more  often  than  not  a 
man  of  humble  origin  raised  to  power  by  the  favour  of 

the  Crown. 

Dr.  Hodgkin  thinks  it  possible  to  detect,  in  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Mayors  of  Austrasia,  the  first  beginnings 
of  a  protest  by  the  Teutonic  eastern   division  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  against  the  claims  of   the  western 
kingdom   of   Neustria   to   be    the   true   centre  of   the 
Frankish  Empire.     It  is  attractive  to  think  of  the  great 
Austrasian  Mayors  as  the  earUest  champions  of  German 
national  independence. 
Arnuif  of        The  great  family  with  which  for  centuries  the  fate  of 
Metz.  580-  ^^^  Frankish  kingdoms  was  destined  to  be  associated  first 
appears  in  history  at  the  moment  when  Brunhilda  was 
making  her  last  stand  against    Clotair,  son  of  Frede- 
gonda.     Among  the  nobles  who  attached  themselves  to 
the   cause   of   Clotair  were  Pippin,  afterwards  known 
as  Pippin  of  Landen,  and  Arnuif.     A  year  later,  the 
See  of  Metz  falling  vacant,  the  people  petitioned  for 
the  appointment  of  Arnuif.     Arnuif  was  still  a  layman, 
but  he  had  for  some  time  desired  to  lay  aside  secular 
Hfe  and  retire  into  a  monastery,  as  his  wife  Doda  had 
done,  with  his  consent,  some  years  before.     But  to  this 
the  king  would  not  consent,  and  as  bishop  of  Metz  he 


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96 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Arnulf  of 
Metz,  580- 
640 


have  been  a  difference  between  the  Mayors  of  Neustria 
and  Burgundy,  who  were  the  champions  of  royal 
authority  against  the  nobles,  and  those  of  Austrasia, 
who  appear  rather  as  the  champions  of  the  rights  of  the 
nobles  against  the  Crown.  As  a  result  of  this,  the 
mayoralty  in  Austrasia  tended  to  become  an  hereditary 
office,  held  by  the  leading  noble  family  of  the  kingdom, 
while  the  Mayor  in  Neustria  is  more  often  than  not  a 
man  of  humble  origin  raised  to  power  by  the  favour  of 

the  Crown. 

Dr.  Hodgkin  thinks  it  possible  to  detect,  in  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Mayors  of  Austrasia,  the  first  beginnings 
of  a  protest  by  the  Teutonic  eastern  division  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  against  the  claims  of  the  western 
kingdom  of  Neustria  to  be  the  true  centre  of  the 
Frankish  Empire.  It  is  attractive  to  think  of  the  great 
Austrasian  Mayors  as  the  earliest  champions  of  German 
national  independence. 

The  great  family  with  which  for  centuries  the  fate  of 
the  Frankish  kingdoms  was  destined  to  be  associated  first 
appears  in  history  at  the  moment  when  Brunhilda  was 
making  her  last  stand  against  Clotair,  son  of  Frede- 
gonda.  Among  the  nobles  who  attached  themselves  to 
the  cause  of  Clotair  were  Pippin,  afterwards  known 
as  Pippin  of  Landen,  and  Arnulf.  A  year  later,  the 
See  of  Metz  falling  vacant,  the  people  petitioned  for 
the  appointment  of  Arnulf.  Arnulf  was  still  a  layman, 
but  he  had  for  some  time  desired  to  lay  aside  secular 
hfe  and  retire  into  a  monastery,  as  his  wife  Doda  had 
done,  with  his  consent,  some  years  before.  But  to  this 
the  king  would  not  consent,  and  as  bishop  of  Metz  he 


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THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


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98 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


99 


Pippin  of 

Landen, 

622-639 


Grimoald 


was  retained  among  the  advisers  of  the  Crown,  while 
administering  his  diocese  with  self-denying  devotion. 
At  last,  in  626,  his  importunities  wrested  from  the 
young  King  Dagobert  a  reluctant  consent  to  his  retire- 
ment, and  he  departed,  first  to  the  monastery  of  Ee- 
miremont,  in  the  Vosges,  and  then,  with  a  few  com- 
panions, to  the  deeper  solitude  of  Horemburg,  where  he 
spent  the  last  three  years  of  his  life,  rejoicing  to  under- 
take the  most  menial  offices. 

He  left  two  sons,  the  younger  of  whom,  Ansegisel, 
married  Pippin's  daughter  Begga,  and  was  the  father 
of  Pippin  of  Heristal. 

Pippin  of  Landen  remained  in  the  world  of  politics 
from  which  his  friend  had  fled,  and  in  622  became 
Mayor  of  the  Palace  in  Austrasia,  then  under  the  rule 
of  Dagobert  as  sub-king.  Perhaps  his  control  of  the 
young  sovereign  was  over-strict ;  at  all  events,  when 
his  father's  death  raised  Dagobert  to  the  kingship  of  the 
whole  Frankish  realm,  and  transferred  his  capital  from 
Metz  to  Paris,  Pippin  seems  to  have  been  for  some 
time  in  practical  captivity.  Dagobert's  death  in  638 
set  him  free  to  return  to  Austrasia,  but  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  died,  **  lamented  by  all  the  men  of 
Austrasia  ". 

Pippin  left  a  son,  Grimoald,  who  three  years  later 
secured  the  position  of  Mayor  of  Austrasia  under  Sigi- 
bert,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  many  of  the  Austrasian 
nobles.  In  Neustria,  where  Sigibert's  brother  was 
king,  his  mother  appointed  a  relation  of  the  young  king 
as  mayor,  and  so,  for  a  time,  averted  the  danger  of  the 
extension  of  Austrasian  supremacy  over  Neustria. 


In  656  a  significant  event  occurred.  In  that  year 
Sigibert  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  a  boy  of 
eight  years  old.  Grimoald,  thinking  that  the  rule  of 
faineant  kings  had  lasted  long  enough,  sent  the  boy 
away  secretly  to  an  Irish  monastery,  and  raised  his  own 
son  Childebert  to  the  Austrasian  throne.  But  the  change 
was  premature.  The  Austrasian  nobles  rose  in  support 
of  the  royal  house,  and  Grimoald  was  carried  off  to 
Paris,  where  Clovis  II.  was  now  ruling.  There  "he 
was  confined  in  a  dungeon  and  bound  with  torturing 
chains ;  and  at  length,  as  he  was  worthy  of  death  for 
what  he  had  done  to  his  lord,  death  finished  him  with 
mighty  torments  ". 

Grimoald's  premature  bid  for  sovereignty  seemed  for 
a  time  to  have  ruined  the  prospects  of  his  house,  and 
the  next  thirty  years  of  Frankish  history  is  a  dreary 
record  of   confusion  and  disintegration.     The   peoples 
on  the  frontiers  of  the  Frankish  realm  began  to  shake 
themselves  free  from  the  Frankish  yoke,  and  Thuringia, 
Bavaria  and  the  Wends  beyond  the  Elbe  defied  the  im- 
potent rulers  who  kept  the  semblance  of  authority  at 
Metz  or  Paris.     The  only  strong  man  of  the  time  was 
Ebroin,  Mayor  of  Neustria,  whose  character,  as  drawn  Ebroin, 
by  the  possibly  biassed  ecclesiastical  chroniclers  of  the  Neustria^ 
time,  appears  as  a  compound  of  cruelty,  avarice   and 
ambition.     After  a  few  years  of  his  rule  the  nobles  of 
Neustria,  led  by  Leodegar,  Bishop  of   Autun   (whose 
name  is  still  familiar  to  us  as  "  St.  Leger  "),  called  the 
Austrasian  king  to  their  help  and  seized  Ebroin  and  his 
puppet-king.     Ebroin  was  compelled  to  take  monastic 
vows  in   the   monastery   of   Luxeuil,  and  for  a  time 


Pippin  of 

Heristal, 

681-715 


100  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUBOPE 

Leodegar  administered  Neustria,  till  a  fresh   intrigue 
sent  him  to  join  his  late  enemy  at  Luxeuil. 

Next  year  the  king  died,  and  three  puppet-claimants 
were  set  up  by  different  factions.  Taking  advantage 
of  the  confusion,  Ebroin  escaped  from  his  monastery, 
and  succeeded  in  securing  the  office  of  Mayor  of  Neustna 
again,  under  his  old  puppet-king,  Theuderich.  His  first 
act  as  mayor  was  to  fetch  his  rival  Leodegar  from 
Luxeuil  and  cause  him  to  be  blinded  and,  a  few  years 
later,  beheaded,  an  act  of  cruelty  that  helped  to  earn  for 
the  bishop  the  title  of  saint. 

For  seven  years  longer  Ebroin  ruled  Neustria   and 
Burgundy,  keeping  down  with  a  firm  hand  all  attempts 
to  dispute  his  authority.     His  only  serious  contest  was 
in   679   when  the  Austrasian  nobles,   with  Pippm  of 
Heristal,  grandson  of  the  old  Mayor  of   Austrasia,  at 
their  head,  dared  the  issue  of  battle  with  the  Neustnan 
"  tyrant "  ;  but  they  were  defeated  with  cruel  slaughter, 
and  their  lands  laid  waste  by  the  victorious  Neustrians. 
At  last,  in  681,  the  murder  of  Ebroin  brought  his 
rule  to  an  end,  and  opened  the  way  for  the  ascendency 
of  the  Austrasian  leader.     At  the  head  of  a  vast  host 
of  Austrasians,  Pippin  of  Heristal  marched  against  the 
Neustrian  king  and  a  feeble  person  whom  the  Neustnan 
nobles  had  chosen  as  mayor,  and  at  a  great  battle  at 
Testri  put  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  Western  kingdom 
and  estabhshed  his  authority  over  the  whole  Frankish 

The  battle  of  Testri  is  one  of  the  most  important 
turning-points  in  the  history  of  Western  Europe,  for  it 
raised  to  unchallenged  supremacy  the  great  Austrasian 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


101 


family  with  whose  fortunes  those  of  the  Frankish  king- 
dom were  to  be  associated  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years,  till  the  death  of  the  last  Carohngian  king,  in  987, 
severed  the  last  link  between  East  and  West  Francia, 
and  gave  to  France  a  new  dynasty  and  a  new  destiny. 

Warned  by  the  fate  of  his  uncle.  Pippin  wisely  con- 
tented himself  with  the  substance  of  power  without 
laying  claim  to  the  name  of  king.  He  might  probably 
have  set  up  as  independent  King  of  Austrasia,  where  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  unchallenged  head  of  the 
nobles;  but  he  preferred  to  attempt  the  harder  task 
of  holding  the  Frankish  kingdom  together.  Making 
Austrasia  the  centre  of  his  rule,  he  set  up  his  sons,  as 
soon  as  they  were  old  enough,  as  Mayors  of  Neustria 
and  Burgundy. 

The  special  task  that  Pippin  set  himself  was  the  re- 
duction of  the  peoples  who  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
confusion  of  the  period  to  throw  off  the  Frankish  yoke. 
In  a  great  battle  on  the  northern  frontier  he  defeated 
Eatbod,  the  King  of  Frisia,  and  compelled  him  to  ac- 
knowledge the  Frankish  overlordship,  and,  as  the  price 
of  the  marriage  of  the  Frisian  king's  daughter  with  his 
son  Grimoald,  he  compelled  him  to  allow  Christian 
missionaries  free  access  to  his  people.  Turning  from 
the  Ehine  to  the  Danube,  Pippin  reduced  the  Thur- 
ingians,  Suabians  and  Bavarians  to  subjection,  and  so 
re-established  the  ancient  frontiers  of  the  Frankish 
kingdom. 

Where    the   sword  had  opened  the  way   the  cross  Wiiii- 
followed.     In  690  a  young  Northumbrian  monk,  Willi- 
brord,  moved  by  missionary  zeal,  landed  with  eleven 


it 


Boniface, 
718-754 


102 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


companions  in  Frisia,  and  finding  little  encouragement 
there  went  south,  und  at  Pippin's  request  settled  at 
Utrecht  as  a  missionary  in  the  West  Frisian  territory 
that  had  lately  been  ceded  to  the  Franks.  With  the 
approval  of  the  Pope,  which  he  went  to  Kome  to  secure, 
he  laboured  there  for  six  years,  and  then  went  again  to 
Kome  to  be  consecrated  as  Bishop  of  Utrecht.  A  long 
episcopate  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  carrying  the 
Christian  faith  not  only  to  the  Frisians,  but  also  to  the 
Danes  in  the  North  and  the  unevangelised   parts   of 

Francia. 

A  few  years  after  WiUibrord's  consecration,  another 
English  monk  arrived  in  Kome  to  offer  himself  for  work 
among  the  heathen  tribes  of  Germany.  This  was 
Winfried  of  Crediton,  better  known  by  his  later  name 
of  Boniface.  He  had  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
gain  access  to  Frisia,  and  after  two  years  in  England 
returned  to  the  work,  and  was  sent  northward  by  Pope 
Gregory  II.  with  a  general  commission  to  preach   in 

Germany. 

In  728,  after  a  strikingly  successful  mission  among 
the  Hessians  and  Saxons,  he  returned  to  Kome  and 
was  consecrated  as  bishop,  taking  at  the  same  time  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Pope  which  marks  an  im- 
portant step  in  the  subjection  of  Northern  Europe  to 
Papal  authority. 

For  thirty  ;^ears  Boniface  is  the  central  figure  in  the 
histoiy  of  the  German  Church,  and  his  influence  served 
to  keep  that  Church  in  close  subjection  to  Papal 
authority.  He  died  in  754,  slain  by  some  heathen  to 
whom  he  had  gone  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel. 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE 


103 


"Boniface  was  statesman  and  scholar  as  well  as 
missionary,  an  able  administrator  as  well  as  an  earnest 
preacher;  and  his  aim  was  to  civiUse  as  well  as  to 
Christianise  the  heathen  of  his  fatherland.  The  sanc- 
tion of  the  Papal  See  was  almost  indispensable  for  the 
success  of  his  efforts ;  for  the  helpless  feebleness  of  the 
Merovingian  kings  and  the  strong  self-assertion  of  the 
Carolingians  were  altogether  unfavourable  to  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  Church." 

"  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  since  the  days  of 
the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  no  missionary  of  the 
Gospel  has  been  more  eminent  in  labours,  in  perils,  in 
self-devotion,  and  in  that  tenacity  yet  elasticity  of  pur- 
pose which  never  loses  sight  of  its  aim,  even  when  com- 
pelled to  approach  it  by  some  other  route  than  that 
which  it  proposed  to  itself  originally." 


I 


CHARLES  MARTEL 


105 


Charles 
Martel, 
715-741 


CHAPTEE  XI 


CHARLES  MARTEL 


'C'EW  things  are  more  striking  in  the  history  of  the 
period  with  which  we  are  deahng  than  the  con- 
trast between  the  long  succession  of  ineffective  and 
shadowy  Merovingians  who  follow  one  another  on  the 
Frankish  throne,  and  the  series  of  great  leaders  of  the 
house  of  St.  Arnulf,  who  for  more  than  a  hundred  years 
hold  the  destinies  of  Europe  in  their  hands.  Even  in 
the  declining  fortunes  of  their  house,  a  hundred  years 
later,  the  Carolingians  retained  much  of  the  strenuous 
vigour  of  their  great  ancestors,  and  only  when  the  direct 
line  of  succession  ended  in  987  did  the  crown  of  the  West 
Frankish  realm  fall  to  another  royal  house. 

Pippin  of  Heristal  ruled  over  the  Franks  for  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  had  two  sons  to  whom  he  hoped  to 
hand  on  the  succession.  But  in  708  Drogo  died,  leaving 
two  sons,  and  shortly  after,  Grimoald  was  murdered, 
leaving  one  little  son  Theudwald,  now  eight  years  of  age. 
Pippin  had  now  to  make  fresh  provision  for  the  future, 
and  he  appointed  the  little  Theudwald  as  heir,  with  his 
own  wife  Plectrudis  as  regent.  But  besides  his  wife 
Plectrudis,  Pippin,  who,  like  most  of  the  Frankish 
chiefs,  retained  in  his  domestic  life  traces  of  the  earlier 

polygamous  conditions  of  pre-Christian  times,  had  an- 

104 


other  wife,  Alphaida,  by  whom  he  had  one  son  Charles, 
now  a  young  man,  ambitious  and  stout  of  heart,  and 
little  likely  to  acquiesce  in  any  arrangement  that  ousted 
him  from  any  share  in  his  father's  dominions. 

A  striking  drama  follows.  In  715  Pippin  died,  and 
the  Merovingian  king,  now  aged  fifteen,  received  as  his 
Mayor  of  the  Palace  a  child  of  eight,  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  an  aged  and  imperious  grandmother.  Her  first 
step  was  to  seize  and  imprison  Charles ;  her  next  to 
raise  an  army  to  meet  an  insurrection  of  the  Neustrian 
nobles,  who  having  set  up  a  certain  Eeginfrid  as  rival 
mayor,  and  allied  themselves  with  the  heathen  Frisians 
and  Saxons,  poured  into  Austrasia  and  drove  Plectrudis 
and  her  grandson  into  Cologne.  In  the  confusion  Charles 
escaped  from  prison,  and  rallied  the  Austrasian  nobles 
to  the  support  of  his  house.  But  Chilperic,  King  of 
Neustria,  who  seems  to  have  had  more  energy  than  most 
of  his  family,  marched  against  him,  and,  with  the  help 
of  old  Batbod  of  Frisia,  defeated  him  near  Cologne. 
Plectrudis  was  reduced  to  purchase  peace  by  the  sur- 
render of  most  of  the  royal  treasures  and  the  acknowledg-  Successes 
ment  of  the  claims  of  the  Neustrian  king.  But  Charles 
fell  upon  the  Neustrian  army  as  it  went  homewards  in 
triumph  through  the  Ardennes,  and  smote  it  into 
headlong  retreat  at  Ambleve,  the  king  and  his  mayor 
barely  escaping  with  their  lives.  Next  year  he  broke 
into  Neustria,  routed  Chilperic  at  Vincy  and  chased 
him  to  Paris.  As  the  young  King  of  Austrasia  had  died 
in  the  preceding  year,  Charles  now  discovered  a  new 
puppet-king,  Clotair  by  name,  whom  he  seated  on  the 
throne,  becoming  himself  Mayor  of  the  Palace.     Then 


of  Charles 


n 


'  I 


The  later 
Mero- 
vingians 


106 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


followed  the  series  of  great  blows  that  earned  for 
Charles  the  name  of  Martel  (the  hammer).  He  drove 
the  Saxons  beyond  the  frontiers,  wrested  West  Fries- 
land  from  Eatbod,  and  then  marched  into  Neustria. 
Chilperic  and  his  mayor,  Eeginfrid,  summoned  to  their 
aid  Eudo  of  Aquetaine,  who  had  carved  out  for  himself 
an  independent  duchy  south  of  the  Loire.  But  Charles, 
having  detached  Eudo  from  the  alliance,  crushed  the 
Neustrian  forces  in  a  last  great  battle  near  Soissons. 
Eeginfrid  maintained  for  a  time  the  semblance  of 
resistance,  while  the  Neustrian  king  made  terms  with 
his  great  enemy,  and,  Charles'  puppet-king  having  con- 
veniently died,  became  king  of  all  the  Franks,  with 
Charles  as  mayor  of  the  kingdoms  and  undisputed 
master  of  the  Frankish  realm. 

Einhard,  Charles  the  Great's  biographer,  has  de- 
scribed in  a  well-known  passage  the  position  of  these 
Merovingian    kings    at    this    closing    period    of    their 

history : — 

'*  For  many  years  the  house  of  the  Merovingians  was 
destitute  of  vigour  and  had  nothing  illustrious  about 
it  except  the  empty  name  of  king.  For  the  rulers  of 
their  palace  possessed  both  the  wealth  and  power  of  the 
kingdom,  bearing  the  name  of  mayor,  and  had  charge 
of  all  great  matters  of  State.  Nothing  remained  to  the 
king  except  the  name  of  king,  his  flowing  locks  and 
long  beard.  He  sat  on  his  throne  and  played  at  ruling, 
gave  audience  to  envoys  and  dismissed  them  with  the 
answers  that  he  had  been  taught,  or  even  commanded,  to 
give.  The  Mayor  of  the  Palace  allowed  him  to  live 
and  bear  the  title  of  king,  but  he  had  nothing  of  his 


CHARLES  MARTEL 


107 


own  save  one  estate  of  small  value  where  he  had  a  home 
and  a  small  body  of  servants.  When  he  had  to  travel, 
he  used  a  covered  cart  drawn  by  oxen  and  driven  by  a 
rustic  retainer.  In  this  style  he  travelled  to  and  fro  to 
his  palace  or  to  the  annual  gatherings  of  the  people. 
The  work  of  administration  and  all  matters  of  policy  at 
home  and  abroad  were  in  the  hands  of  the  mayor." 

Within  a  year  of  the  establishment  of  peace  Chilperic 
died  and  was  succeeded  by  Theuderich.  On  his  death, 
about  737,  Charles  did  not  trouble  to  find  another 
Merovingian  to  fill  the  vacant  throne,  but  contented 
himself  with  dating  his  official  documents  "  The  .  .  .  th 
year  after  the  death  of  Theuderich  ". 

The  special  task  that  lay  before  Charles,  as  before 
each  new  mayor  at  his  accession,  was  the  restoration  of 
the  authority  of  the  Franks  over  the  outlying  parts  of 
the  ancient  Frank  dominions  that  had  lapsed  into 
practical  independence  in  the  confusion  of  the  previous 
period.  Eelying  on  the  support  of  his  Austrasian 
warriors,  he  struck  eastward  and  southward,  and  restored 
the  old  frontiers  of  the  Empire. 

Two  provinces  in  particular  claimed  his  attention,  charies 
The  first  of  these  was  Bavaria.  Originally  occupied  b^v 
by  a  Teutonic  tribe,  who  had  subdued  the  Celtic  Boii 
and  taken  possession  of  their  land,  the  territory  was 
ruled  by  native  chiefs  who  admitted  the  overlordship 
of  the  Frankish  kings,  but  lived  in  practical  independ- 
ence. Their  relations  were  naturally  close  with  the 
Lombards  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps,  and  we  have 
already  seen  a  Bavarian  princess  married  to  the  Lombard 
King  Agilulf  and  helping  to  extend  Christianity  among 


ana 


«l 


|i 


I! 


' 


i| 


Aquetaine 


108 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


the  Lombards.  Several  missionaries  had  begun  to 
evangehse  Bavaria— Eupert  of  Worms,  Emmeran  of 
Poictiers  and  Corbinian.  There  is  a  good  deal  that  is 
obscure  in  the  story  of  Bavaria  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighth  century,  but  about  725  Charles  Martel  and  the 
Lombard  king  Liutprand  appear  to  have  invaded  the 
country,  and  a  few  years  later  Charles  again  attacked 
Bavaria  and  carried  off  a  Bavarian  princess,  Swanahild, 
whom  he  married  after  the  somewhat  vague  Frankish 
fashion,  and  by  whom  he  had  a  son,  Grifo,  who  was 
destined  to  play  a  part  in  the  subsequent  history. 
Bavaria  appears  to  have  once  more  accepted  the  Frankish 

yoke  for  a  time. 

One  result  of  the  reassertion  of  Frankish  supremacy 
in  Bavaria  was  the  organisation  of  the  Bavarian  Church 
by  the  great  missionary  Bishop  Boniface,  acting  under 
instructions  from  Eome. 

Aquetaine  had  also  drifted  away  from  subjection  to 
the  Frankish  rulers.  We  have  no  record  of  the  process 
by  which  this  province,  which  retained  more  than  any 
other  part  of  the  Empire  of  Clovis  its  ancient  Eoman 
character,  secured  the  practical  independence  to  which 
it  had  attained  by  the  time  of  Charles  Martel.  We 
have  already  seen  Eudo  of  Aquetaine  taking  a  share  in 
the  war  between  Neustria  and  Austrasia  that  raised 
Charles  to  power.  After  this  the  relations  between  the 
Frankish  mayor  and  the  Aquetanian  duke  were  for  a 
time  friendly.  Aquetaine  had  need  of  the  support  and 
friendship  of  the  Franks,  for  the  duchy  was  menaced 
by  a  danger  with  which  it  was  not  able  to  cope  alone. 

The  Moslem  conquerors  of  Spain  had  contrived  to 


CHARLES  MARTEL 


109 


make    their  yoke  tolerable  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  The 

,    „,     .  T    ,       1      J  •  (.Moslems  ill 

country,  whom  they  left  m  undisturbed  possession  otgpain 
their  lands  and  religion,  subject  to  a  produce  and  poll-tax, 
from  the  latter  of  which  all  Moslems  were  exempt.  But 
while  the  subject  people  accepted  their  fate  with  re- 
signation, quarrels  broke  out  between  the  tribes  of  the 
conquerors,  and  Spain  shared  the  general  tendency  to 
disintegration  that  throughout  the  Moslem  world  fol- 
lowed on  the  great  period  of  conquest.  The  only  way 
to  check  these  internal  contests  was  to  continue  the 
work  of  conquest,  and  accordingly  the  leaders  of  the 
Spanish  Moors  began  to  penetrate  beyond  the  Pyrenees 
and  menace  the  Duchy  of  Aquetaine.  In  720  they 
captured  the  town  of  Narbonne  and  overran  all  the 
province  of  Septimania.  But  Eudo  compelled  them  to 
retreat  from  before  Toulouse,  and  so  gave  the  first  check 
to  the  advance  of  Moslem  conquest  in  the  West.  Five 
years  later  we  find  them  advancing  as  far  as  Autun, 
in  Burgundy.  For  Eudo  had  now  become  involved  in  a 
struggle  with  Charles,  due  probably  to  an  attempt  of 
the  Frankish  ruler  to  reassert  his  overlordship  over 
the  province.  Eudo  had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  give 
his  daughter  in  marriage  to  an  Arab  chief. 

Open  war  broke  out  in  731,  and  Aquetaine  had 
already  been  ravaged  by  the  Austrasian  army,  when  the 
domestic  feud  was  suddenly  stilled  by  the  tempest  of 
Moslem  invasion  that  burst  through  the  barrier  of  the 
Pyrenees.  Eudo's  son-in-law  was  slain  by  the  Moorish 
leader  Abdurrahman,  and  in  the  spring  of  732  he 
reached  the  Garonne  and  laid  siege  to  Bordeaux.  Eudo, 
advancing  to  the  relief  of  the  city,  was  defeated  and 


110 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


CHARLES  MARTEL 


111 


i% 


i 


:  \ 


i> 


his  army  nearly  destroyed.     The  Moslems  marched  on 
towards   the   Loire,   while   Eudo   fled    to    Charles   to 
implore  his  aid. 
The  Battle      The  crisis  was  grave,  for  only  a  Frankish  victory 
732  could  save  Gaul  from  falling  a  prey  to  the  Saracens. 

But  Charles  and  his  Austrasian  warriors,  reinforced 
probably  by  levies  from  the  other  races  under  his  rule, 
met  the  Moslem  host  between  Poictiers  and  Tours, 
where  Charles  took  up  a  strong  position  and  awaited 
the  assault  of  the  enemy.  After  seven  days  of  re- 
connoitring, Abdurrahman  ordered  a  frontal  attack,  and 
the  Moslem  soldiers  threw  themselves  against  the  serried 
ranks  of  the  Franks,  much  as  the  Normans  long  after 
charged  the  Saxon  lines  on  the  slopes  of  Senlac.  But 
the  Franks  stood  firm  and  with  their  long  swords 
worked  havoc  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.  Night  fell 
on  the  scene  of  carnage,  and  when  the  Frank  army 
marched  out  next  day  to  renew  the  fight  they  found 
the  Saracen  camp  deserted  and  the  enemy  fled,  leaving 
rich  spoils  for  the  Austrasian  warriors  to  bear  home  with 
them. 

Three  years  later  Eudo  died,  and  Charles  was  obliged 
to  march  into  Aquetaine  to  secure  from  his  son  Hunold 
the  recognition  of  the  Frank  overlordship.  Then  in 
737  war  again  broke  out  between  the  Saracens  and  the 
Franks.  Through  the  treachery  of  a  certain  Duke 
Maurontus,  of  Provence,  the  Moslems  gained  possession 
of  the  two  great  cities  of  Aries  and  Avignon.  Charles, 
busy  with  a  war  in  the  North,  sent  an  army  under  the 
command  of  a  half-brother,  Childebrand.  He  himself 
followed  soon  after,  in  time  to  share  in  the  capture  of 


Avignon  and  the  defeat  of  the  invaders  in  a  great 
battle  near  Narbonne.  According  to  one  chronicler, 
Liutprand,  King  of  the  Lombards,  sent  a  detachment  of 
troops  to  aid  in  this  struggle,  which  went  on  for  a 
year  longer  and  ended  in  winning  back  all  Provence 
from  the  Moslems. 

This  campaign  closed  the  warlike  activities  of  the 
great  Mayor  of  the  Palace.  Though  not  much  over 
fifty  years  of  age,  his  health  began  to  fail,  and  such 
fighting  as  needed  to  be  done  against  Saxons  or  Frisians 
he  left  to  his  two  sturdy  sons. 

The  most  important  incident  of  these  years  was  the  Charles 
appeal,  renewed  more  than  once,  from  Pope  Gregory  III.  Pope 
for  Charles'  help  against  the  Lombards.  Liutprand  was 
a  trusted  friend  and  ally  of  the  Frankish  ruler,  and  for 
this  reason  alone  it  is  easy  to  understand  Charles' 
reluctance  to  embark  on  a  campaign  against  him.  It 
is  difficult  to  know  what  to  make  of  the  story  that 
Gregory  offered  Charles  the  office  of  consul  as  the 
price  of  his  intervention.  If  he  really  did  so,  he  offered 
what  he  had  no  right  to  give. 

Another  aspect  of  the  policy  of  Charles  deserves 
attention.  In  spite  of  his  championship  of  Christendom 
on  the  field  of  Tours  and  his  support  of  Boniface  and 
his  colleagues,  Charles  fares  ill  at  the  hands  of  later 
ecclesiastical  chroniclers.  The  reason  for  this  is  that 
he  is  accused  of  having  robbed  the  Church  in  order  to 
reward  his  followers.  The  facts  are  that,  in  the  con- 
fusion of  the  earlier  times,  the  Church  had  acquired  a 
very  large  amount  of  land  and  that  Charles  had  not 
enough  Crown  lands  left  to  reward  his  officers  in  the 


ii 


I 


I^i 


112 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Ui 


N 

I 
f 

I 
|. 

II 


I 


usual  way  by  grants  of  land.  Charles  therefore  re- 
sorted to  the  expedient  of  resuming  Crown  lands  that 
had  been  alienated  into  ecclesiastical  hands,  or  appoint- 
ing his  warriors  as  prelates  or  abbots  so  that  they 
might  draw  the  revenues  of  religious  foundations.  It 
is  interesting  to  see  emerging  already  the  problem  that 
was  destined  for  ages  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Germany, 
till  the  final  secularisation  of  Church  lands  in  the 
Napoleonic  time  laid  it  at  last  to  rest. 

Charles  died  on  22nd  October,  741,  and  was  buried 
at  the  great  Church  of  St.  Denis  near  Paris,  having 
ruled  the  Franks  for  twenty-five  years. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PIPPIN,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS 

TN  accordance  with  the  Frank  law  of  inheritance  theCarioman 

dominions  of  Charles  fell,  at  his  death,  to  his  two  741.747^*"' 
sons,  Carloman  and  Pippin,  the  former  taking  Austrasia 
and  the  dependent  territories  of  the  East,  while  Neustria 
and  Burgundy  fell  to  Pippin.  But  so  close  was  the 
accord  between  the  two  brothers  that  they  practically 
acted  as  joint  rulers  of  the  whole  Frank  kingdom.  For 
his  younger  son,  Grifo,  whose  position  as  the  child  of  an 
irregular  marriage  was  so  like  his  own,  Charles  appears 
to  have  made  some  provision  by  carving  out  a  little  area 
at  the  frontier  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia,  with  a  capital 
at  the  city  of  Laon,  which  was  destined  more  than 
two  hundred  years  later  to  be  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
Carolingian  house. 

No  sooner  had  the  death  of  Charles  become  known 
than  disturbances  began  in  all  directions.  Aquetaine, 
Suabia  and  Saxony  attempted  to  throw  off  the  Frankish 
yoke,  and  Grifo  appears  to  have  headed  a  rising  of 
malcontent  Neustrian  nobles.  After  a  siege  in  Laon 
he  and  his  mother,  the  Bavarian  Swanahild,  were 
captured.  Swanahild  was  sent  to  a  monastery  near  Paris, 
where  we  lose  sight  of  her,  and  Grifo  kept  in  prison  for 
years  in  a  fortress  of  the  Ardennes. 


8 


113 


'm 


112 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


usual  way  by  grants  of  land.  Charles  therefore  re- 
sorted to  the  expedient  of  resuming  Crown  lands  that 
had  been  alienated  into  ecclesiastical  hands,  or  appoint- 
ing his  warriors  as  prelates  or  abbots  so  that  they 
might  draw  the  revenues  of  religious  foundations.  It 
is  interesting  to  see  emerging  already  the  problem  that 
was  destined  for  ages  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Germany, 
till  the  final  secularisation  of  Church  lands  in  the 
Napoleonic  time  laid  it  at  last  to  rest. 

Charles  died  on  22nd  October,  741,  and  was  buried 
at  the  great  Church  of  St.  Denis  near  Paris,  having 
ruled  the  Franks  for  twenty-five  years. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PIPPIN,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS 

JN  accordance  with  the  Frank  law  of  inheritance  the  Carioman 

dominions  of  Charles  fell,  at  his  death,  to  his  two  m-fir'"' 
sons,  Carioman  and  Pippin,  the  former  taking  Austrasia 
and  the  dependent  territories  of  the  East,  while  Neustria 
and  Burgundy  fell  to  Pippin.  But  so  close  was  the 
accord  between  the  two  brothers  that  they  practically 
acted  as  joint  rulers  of  the  whole  Frank  kingdom.  For 
his  younger  son,  Grifo,  whose  position  as  the  child  of  an 
irregular  marriage  was  so  like  his  own,  Charles  appears 
to  have  made  some  provision  by  carving  out  a  little  area 
at  the  frontier  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia,  with  a  capital 
at  the  city  of  Laon,  which  was  destined  more  than 
two  hundred  years  later  to  be  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
Carolingian  house. 

No  sooner  had  the  death  of  Charles  become  known 
than  disturbances  began  in  all  directions.  Aquetaine, 
Suabia  and  Saxony  attempted  to  throw  off  the  Frankish 
yoke,  and  Grifo  appears  to  have  headed  a  rising  of 
malcontent  Neustrian  nobles.  After  a  siege  in  Laon 
he  and  his  mother,  the  Bavarian  Swanahild,  were 
captured.  Swanahild  was  sent  to  a  monastery  near  Paris, 
where  we  lose  sight  of  her,  and  Grifo  kept  in  prison  for 
years  in  a  fortress  of  the  Ardennes. 

8  113 


114 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


PIPPIN,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS 


115 


Before  turning  to  the  task  of  repressing  the  rebeUious 
provinces  the  two  mayors  determined  to  give  technical 
legaHty  to  their  position  by  placing  a  Merovingian  on 
the  throne.  They  found  somewhere  a  certain  Childenc 
who  served  their  purpose,  and  him  they  enthroned  as  the 
last  king  of  the  old  royal  house  of  Clovis. 
Bavarian  Then  they  marched  against  Odilo,  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
ex^dition,  ^^^  ^^^y  ^  gj^Qj.^  ^- j^^g  before  had  married  their  sister 

Hiltrudis  against  their  wish,  but  with  the  approval,  and 
perhaps  at  the  instigation,  of  Swanahild.     In  some  way 
that  is  not  very  clear  this  marriage  was  connected  with 
the  rebellion  of  Odilo  against  the  Frankish  overlordship. 
Odilo  appears  in  some  accounts  as  the  organiser  of  a 
great    aUiance    of    malcontent    provinces  —  Aquetaine, 
Alemannia  and  even  the  Slavs  of  the  North.     But  the 
two  mayors  marched  straight  on  Bavaria,  and  met  the 
Bavarian   forces  on  the  borders  of   the  duchy,  where 
the  river  Lech  flows  to  join  the  Danube.     Here,  after 
facing  each  other  for  fifteen  days,  they  joined  battle, 
and  the  Bavarians  were  broken.     Odilo  escaped,  but 
was  subsequently  captured,   imprisoned,   and    then,    a 
year  later,  restored  to  his  duchy.     He  died  soon  after, 
leaving  a  httle  son  Tassilo,  of   whom   we  shall   hear 
again, 
carioman's      The  next  three  years  (744-746)  were  years  of  constant 
renuncia-    ^^j-fare  with  Saxons,  Alemannians  and   Aquetanians. 

tion   747 

The  only  episode  that  needs  specific  record  is  the  expe- 
dition of  Carloman  against  the  Alemannians  in  74(3, 
when  he  is  said  to  have  invited  them  to  meet  him  at  a 
gemot,  or  assembly,  at  Cannstadt,  and  then  surrounded 
them  with  Frankish  troops  and  put  a  large  number  to 


the  sword.  Such  acts  of  treachery  are  not  uncommon  in 
the  record  of  these  days,  but  the  sequel  is  more  unusual. 
Struck  with  contrition  at  his  own  deed,  Carloman  deter- 
mined to  expiate  it  by  laying  down  his  office  and  adopt- 
ing the  monastic  life.  -  In  this  year,"  says  the  chronic- 
ler, *'  Carloman  laid  open  to  his  brother  Pippin  a  thing 
upon  which  he  had  long  been  meditating,  namely,  his 
desire  to  relinquish  his  secular  life  and  serve  God  as 
a  monk."  So,  in  747,  Carloman  set  out  for  Eome, 
where  he  received  the  tonsure,  and  founded  a  monastery 
at  Mount  Soracte.  After  a  time  he  moved  on  to  Monte 
Cassino,  where  he  delighted  in  performing  the  most 
menial  tasks,  till,  his  name  and  history  being  betrayed 
by  his  servant,  he  was  accorded  a  more  honourable 
position.     Of  him  we  shall  hear  again. 

Meanwhile  Pippin  was  left  as  sole  Mayor  of  Francia,  Orifo 
and  his  first  act  was  one  of  ill-judged  clemency.     He 
liberated  Grifo  from  captivity  and  endowed  him  with 
"  large  revenues  ".     But  Grifo  proved  as  intractable  as 
he  had  been  six  years  before.     He  fled  to  the  Saxons, 
whom  he  stirred  up  to  revolt,  and  when  Pippin  marched 
mto  Saxony  he  escaped  into  Bavaria,  where  he  succeeded 
in  getting  possession  of  the  little  Duke  Tassilo  and  his 
mother.     On    the   advance   of   Pippin    the    Bavarians 
surrendered  Grifo,  who  was  then  forgiven  by  his  brother 
and  given  substantial  territories  in  Neustria,  with  Le 
Mans  as  his  capital.     But  all  was  in  vain,  and  Grifo 
continued  to  stir  up  trouble  for  Pippin  till  the  year  753, 
when  in  the  act  of  crossing  the  Alps  to  join  the  Lombards, 
who  were  on  the  eve  of  a  war  with  the  Franks,  he  was 
intercepted  by  two  counts  of  Pippin's  army,  and  in  the 


•  I 


116 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


PIPPIN,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS 


117 


{ 


skirmish  that  followed  all  three  were  killed.  *' His 
death,  though  he  was  a  traitor  to  his  country,  was  a 
cause  of  grief  to  Pippin.'* 

Before  this  event  an  important  change  had  come 
to  the  Frankish  kingdom.  Since  Grimoald's  ill-fated 
attempt  to  dispossess  the  Merovingian  hne,  the  house  of 
St.  Arnulf  had  been  content  with  the  substance  of  power, 
leaving  the  form  of  it  to  the  kings  whom  they  set  up. 
It  is  not  possible  to  say  what  motives  led  Pippin  to 
desire  to  end  this  anomalous  position.  Possibly,  in  a 
country  that  the  efforts  of  Boniface  and  his  monks  were 
rapidly  making  Christian,  Pippin  felt  that  the  rehgious 
sanction  of  a  royal  consecration  might  strengthen  the 
authority  of  his  house.  Whatever  the  motive  may  have 
been,  the  facts  are  thus  narrated  by  the  monastic  chronic- 
ler : — 
Pippin.  **  In  the  year  750  of  the  Lord's  incarnation.  Pippin 

Fralks  750  sent  ambassadors  to  Kome  to  Pope  Zacharias,  to  ask 
concerning  the  kings  of  the  Franks  who  were  of  the  royal 
line  and  were  called  kings,  but  had  no  power  in  the 
kingdom,  save  only  that  charters  and  privileges  were 
drawn  in  their   names.  .  .  .  But   on  the  first  day  of 
March   in  the  Campus,  according  to   ancient  custom, 
gifts  were  offered  to  these  kings  by  the  people,  and  the 
king  himself  sat  in  the  royal  seat  with  the  army  standing 
around  him,  and  he  commanded  on  that  day  whatever 
was  decreed  by  the  Franks,  but  on  all  other  days  he 
stayed   at    home.      Pope   Zacharias    therefore   in   the 
exercise  of  his  apostohcal  authority  rephed  to  their  ques- 
tion that  it  seemed  to  him  better  and  more  expedient 
that  the  man  who  held  power  in  the  kingdom  should  be 


called  king  and  be  king,  rather  than  he  who  falsely  bore 
that  name.  Therefore  the  aforesaid  Pope  commanded 
the  king  and  people  of  the  Franks  that  Pippin,  who  was 
exercising  the  royal  power,  should  be  called  king,  and 
occupy  the  royal  seat.  Which  was  therefore  done  by 
the  anointing  of  the  holy  Archbishop  Boniface  in  the 
city  of  Soissons.  There  Pippin  is  proclaimed  king,  and 
Childeric,  who  was  falsely  called  king,  is  tonsured  and 
sent  into  a  monastery." 

Here  then  we  reach  the  meeting-place  of  the  old  and 
the  new.     Pippin  is  lifted,  as  Prankish  kings  had  been 
lifted  for  unnumbered  generations  before  him,  on  the 
shields  of  the  warriors  and  saluted  as  king ;  but  he  is 
also,  as   no   other  Prankish   king  had  ever  yet   been, 
anointed  in  the  church  at  Soissons  as  a  Christian  king. 
But  what  was  the  share  of  the  Pope  in  all  this  ?    We 
may  be  sure  that  the  inquiry  of  the  Franks  was  never 
intended  to  imply  any  right  over  the  Prankish  throne 
vested   in  the  Roman  bishop.     But  a  change  in   the 
royal  dynasty  was  a  religious  act ;  if  disapproved  by  the 
religious  authorities  it  would  be  deprived  of  its  value  ;  and 
Boniface  was  likely  to  use  all  his  influence  to  persuade 
the  Mayor  of  the  Palace  to  act  in  accord  with  the  wishes 
of  the  Pope  in  this  important  step.     The  whole  incident 
shows  how  much  more  close  and  harmonious  the  relations 
of  Pippin  were  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  than 
those  of  his  illustrious  father;  and   it  also  marks  the 
beginning  of  a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  Europe, 
in  which  the  fortunes  of  the  Frank  kingdom  and  the 
Roman  See,  which  had  hitherto  had  little  relation  to 
each  other,  became  so  intertwined  as  to  make  inevitable 


ft 


118 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Campaigns 

against 

Saxons 


Saracens 


Aquetaine, 
759-768 


at  last  the  formal  recognition  of  their  mutual  dependence 
in   the   coronation   of   Charles   the   Great   fifty   years 

later. 

For  some  years  after  this  time  the  main  interest  of 
Pippin's  reign  centres  in  his  relations  with  Italy,  which 
can  be  more  conveniently  dealt  with  in  the  next 
chapter. 

It  was  not  till  756  that  Pippin  was  free  to  turn  his 
attention  to  the  affairs  of  his  own  kingdom.  His  first 
task  was  the  usual  contest  with  rebellious  Saxons.  Of 
this  turbulent  people  we  shall  have  more  to  say  when  we 
deal  with  their  conquest  by  Charles  the  Great.  Pippin's 
campaign  reduced  them  to  a  measure  of  submission  and 
the  promise  of  annual  tribute. 

Shortly  after  this  Pippin  completed  the  work  of  driv- 
ing the  Saracens  out  of  the  province  of  Septimania. 
Moslem  rule,  which  depended  largely  on  Gothic  dislike 
for  the  Franks,  had  already  been  undermined,  and  on  the 
promise  that  their  local  independence  should  be  pre- 
served the  Visigoths  of  Narbonne  rose,  slew  the  Saracen 
garrison  and  opened  the  gates  to  the  Prankish  king. 
The  Pyrenees  became  once  more  the  boundary  line  of 
Saracen  rule. 

The  closing  years  of  Pippin's  reign  were  spent  in  a 
great  struggle  with  Waiter,  Duke  of  Aquetaine,  who 
made  a  determined  bid  for  independence.  The  reduction 
of  the  province  proved  no  easy  task,  and  in  the  middle 
of  the  war  Pippin's  nephew,  Tassilo  of  Bavaria,  deserted 
the  army  and  declared  that  he  would  serve  under  his 
uncle's  flag  no  more.  Pippin  was  too  fully  occupied 
with  Aquetaine  to  punish  Tassilo's  treachery,  and  it  was 


PIPPIN,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS 


119 


not  till  768,  after  nearly  nine  years  of  war,  that  the 
death  of  Waifer  brought  his  duchy  once  more  under  the 
Prankish  rule.  Pippin's  settlement  of  the  province  was 
statesmanlike  and  wise.  He  made  no  attempt  to  extend 
the  laws  of  the  Franks  to  a  people  who  still  accounted 
themselves  Romans,  but  enacted  '*  that  all  men,  Romans 
and  Salians  alike,  should  keep  their  own  laws,  and  that 
if  any  man  should  come  from  another  province,  he 
should  live  according  to  the  law  of  his  own  country  ". 

The  settlement  of  Aquetaine  was  Pippin's  last  work. 
He  died  in  September,  768,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  worn 
out  by  the  labours  of  a  strenuous  reign  of  almost  constant 
fighting. 

Of  Pippin's  personal  character  we  know  scarcely 
anything.  The  tradition  that  he  was  small  of  stature 
is  late,  but  may  be  true.  He  is  reputed  to  have  been 
a  man  of  great  physical  strength,  and  he  was  certainly 
shrewd  and  brave.  His  interest  in  the  work  of  Boniface 
leads  one  to  think  of  him  as  sincerely  anxious  for  the 
extension  of  Christianity  in  his  kingdom.  His  greatest 
work  was  the  extension  of  Prankish  influence  beyond 
the  Alps,  in  the  land  that  was  destined  to  cast  so  strange 
a  spell  for  generations  over  the  rulers  of  those  German 
lands  that  he  ruled  so  long  and  so  well. 


V 


^)i 


Liutprand, 
712-743 


1  B 


! 


CHAPTEE  XIII 

THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS 

pHAELES  MAETEL,  Liutprand,  King  of  the 
Lombards,  Leo  the  Isaurian  and  Gregory  II.  all 
begin  to  play  their  part  in  history  within  a  few  years  of 
each  other,  and  while  Charles  declined,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  be  drawn  into  Italian  affairs,  the  other  three  form 
a  group  around  which  Italian  history  centres.  Dr. 
Hodgkin  ingeniously  compares  the  contest  of  this  period 
to  **  the  litigation  that  might  go  on  in  an  English  parish 
between  an  absentee  landlord,  a  big  Nonconformist 
farmer,  and  a  cultured  but  acquisitive  parson  ".  The 
Emperor  is  the  absentee  landlord,  represented  by  the 
Exarch  of  Eavenna,  the  Lombard  King  is  the  farmer, 
and  the  Pope  the  parson. 

Liutprand  was  perhaps  the  best  of  all  the  Lombard 
kings.  It  is  unfortunate  that  we  are  so  largely  depend- 
ent for  our  knowledge  of  this  period  on  Papal  chroniclers 
and  letters,  for  the  unmeasured  terms  in  which  the 
Popes  denounce  the  Lombard  kings  give  us  no  sort  of 
idea  of  their  real  character.  But  the  prosperity  of  the 
Lombard  kingdom  during  the  thirty  years  of  Liutprand's 
reign,  and  his  friendship  with  Charles  Martel,  who  sent 
his  son  Pippin  to  him  to  be  dubbed  as  a  knight,  attest 
the  wisdom  of  his  rule.     He  had  been  king  for  fourteen 

120 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS     121 

years  when  the  edict  of  Leo  against  images,  the  story 
of  which  will  be  told  in  another  chapter,  set  all  Italy  in 
a  blaze.  For  the  edict  not  only  involved  a  claim  on  the 
part  of  the  Emperor  to  legislate  on  religious  questions 
without  any  consultation  with  the  Pope,  it  also  struck 
at  a  cherished  part  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Italian 
people. 

An  attempt  of  Scholasticus,  the  Exarch  of  Eavenna,  Gregory  ii. 
to  publish  the  edict  led  to  a  riot  in  Eavenna,  and  the  JJ^tprand 
Duke  of  Naples  was  murdered  by  a  mob  when  he  tried 
to  enforce  it  in  his  territories.     Gregory  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  opposition,  and  wrote  vigorous,  outspoken 
and  discourteous  letters  to  the  Emperor,  warning  him  of 
the  error  of  his  proceedings.      Meanwhile  Liutprand 
seized   the  opportunity  to   march   into   the  exarchate, 
where  city  after  city  opened  its  gates  to  him,  and  at 
length  Eavenna  itself  fell  into  his  hands,  the  exarch 
escaping    to    Venice,    which    remained    loyal    to    the 
Emperor.     But  as  soon  as  Liutprand's  back  was  turned 
the  exarch,  aided  by  a  Venetian  army,  recovered  the 
city,  which  an  outbreak  of  rebellion  by  the  Dukes  of 
Spoleto   and  Beneventum  prevented  Liutprand   from 
attacking  again.      The   recalcitrant   dukes   were  soon 
reduced   to  order,  but  in   the  meanwhile   the  exarch, 
acting  on  orders  from  the  Emperor,  marched  to  Eome 
to  seize  the  person  of  the  Pope.     While  the  siege  was 
in  progress  Liutprand  and  his  army  arrived  outside  the 
city,  and  the  Pope  threw  himself  on  the  protection  of 
the  Lombard  king,  who  received  him  with  the  utmost 
respect  and,  constituting  himself  as  arbiter,  arranged  a 
general  pacification,   the  exarch  retaining  the  city  of 


122 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Gregory' 
III.,  731- 
741 


ilj 


Kavenna,  but  surrendering  to  Liutprand  the  other  cities 
that  were  already  in  his  hands.  Leo's  second  and 
more  drastic  edict  of  730  only  served  to  arouse  even 
stronger  opposition  in  Italy,  and  almost  the  last  act  of 
Gregory's  Hfe  was  the  assembling  of  a  council  of  Italian 
bishops  to  anathematise  all  who  refused  to  worship 
images.  In  the  following  year  he  died.  He  had  been 
the  first  Pope  for  a  long  time  who  was  a  Roman  by 
birth,  and  he  is  recorded  to  have  been  an  earnest  restorer 
of  churches  and  monasteries  ruined  by  the  contest  of 
the  previous  period.  To  his  time  of  office  also  belongs 
the  visit  to  Eome  of  Ina,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  who, 
after  reigning  for  thirty-seven  years,  renounced  his 
kingdom  and  came  with  his  wife  Ethelburga  as  a  pilgrim 
to  Rome,  where  he  stayed  for  the  short  remainder  of 
his  Hfe,  founding,  it  is  said,  a  Saxon  school  in  Rome  for 
his  fellow-countrymen. 

Gregory  II.  was  succeeded  by  a  Syrian  Pope,  Gregory 
III.,  who  is  said  to  have  been  compelled  to  accept  the 
Papal  office  while  assisting  at  the  funeral  of  his  pre- 
decessor. He  is  the  last  Pope  whose  election  was 
confirmed  by  the  Exarch  of  Ravenna,  acting  for  the 

Emperor. 

The  first  few  years  of  the  new  Pope  were  peaceful. 
The  opposition  of  the  Italians  to  the  Iconoclastic  decrees 
cut  off  Italy  almost  entirely  from  the  Empire,  and  the 
exarch,  clinging  desperately  to  his  one  remaining 
stronghold  of  Ravenna,  could  do  nothing  to  restore 
Imperial  authority.  Peace  was  broken  at  last  through 
what  appears  to  be  a  foohsh  challenge  thrown  down  to 
the  Lombard  king  by  Gregory.     The  Duke  of  Spoleto, 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS  123 

having  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  throw  off  the 
overlordship  of  Liutprand,  took  refuge  in  Rome,  and 
Gregory  refused  to  surrender  him.  Liutprand  promptly 
marched  against  Rome,  capturing  the  Papal  towns  on 
his  way,  and  laid  siege  to  the  city.  Gregory,  terrified 
at  the  prospect  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Lom- 
bards, wrote  frantic  appeals  to  Charles  Martel,  drawing 
harrowing  pictures  of  the  desolation  and  ruin  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  imploring  Charles,  as  he  valued 
his  soul's  salvation,  to  haste  to  the  rescue.  But  Charles, 
already  drawing  near  his  end,  remained  unmoved,  and 
within  a  few  months  both  he  and  Gregory  died  (741). 

To  the  new  Pope,  Zacharias,  Liutprand  behaved  with 
the  greatest  consideration.  On  his  promising  that  he 
would  give  no  more  help  to  the  Duke  of  Spoleto  he 
restored  all  the  Papal  cities  that  he  had  captured  and 
added  rich  gifts  to  the  Roman  Church.  Two  years  later 
he  died,  leaving  the  Lombard  kingdom  in  its  highest 
condition  of  prosperity,  undisturbed  by  internal  divisions 
and  at  peace  with  its  great  northern  neighbour. 

Liutprand  was  succeeded  by  a  nephew  Hildebrand, 
who,  proving  himself  an  incompetent  ruler,  was  deposed 
in  a  few  months  to  make  room  for  Ratchis,  Duke  of  itatcWs 
Friuli.  For  five  years  or  so  Ratchis  remained  at  peace  ^eharias 
with  the  Pope ;  then,  for  some  reason  that  is  not  clear, 
he  broke  the  truce  and  laid  siege  to  Perugia.  Zacharias, 
who  had  already  exercised  his  personal  influence  over 
Liutprand  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  when  he  dissuaded 
him  from  a  projected  attack  on  Ravenna,  now  gave  an 
even  more  striking  evidence  of  his  personal  power,  for 
when  he  visited  the  Lombard  camp,  to  dissuade  Ratchis 


124 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


from  his  warlike  design,  he  so  influenced  the  king  that, 
with  his  wife  and  daughters,  he  repaired  to  Kome,  there 
took  monastic  vows,  and  joined  the  Benedictines  at  the 
great  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Aistulf ,  who,  while 
Zacharias  lived,  appears  to  have  held  his  restless  and 
turbulent  ambition  in  check.  The  last  important  act 
of  Zacharias'  pontificate  v^as  the  sanction  he  gave  to  the 
transference  of  the  Frankish  crown  from  the  Mero- 
vingian Hne  to  Pippin.  He  died  in  752,  and  after  a 
Pope,  Stephen,  who  only  held  office  for  three  days, 
Stephen  II.  succeeded. 
The  The  new  Pope  was  a  Koman  by  birth,  and  had  been 

^"S^^to^- brought  up  in  the  Papal  palace  under  Gregory  II.     He 
^'"^  therefore  inherited  the  traditions  of  Papal  policy.    What 

these  traditions  were  can  be  seen  by  reference  to  a 
celebrated  document,  which  probably  first  saw  the  light 
at  about  this  time.  The  document  is  the  Donation  of 
Constantine,  and  purports  to  be  a  decree  of  the  first 
Christian  Empire,  granting  immense  dignities  and 
possessions  to  the  Koman  bishop.  After  giving  to  the 
occupant  of  the  Papal  See  supremacy  over  the  Sees  of 
Alexandria,  Antioch,  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople, 
and  sovereignty  over  all  the  priests  in  the  world,  and 
appointing  the  Church  in  the  Lateran  palace  as  **  the 
head  and  summit  of  all  the  churches  in  the  whole 
world,"  it  goes  on  to  grant  to  the  Eoman  clergy  various 
ceremonial  privileges.  They  may  ride  on  horses  with 
white  saddle-cloths,  and  wear  white  shoes,  like  the 
senators;  and  the  Pope  is  to  wear  an  imperial  tiara, 
wherewith  the  Emperor  has  in  person  crowned  him. 


i( 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS    125 

Then  follows  the  important  clause,  on  which  so  vast  a 
superstructure  was  destined  to  be  built  :— 

"Wherefore,  that  the  pontifical  crown  may  be 
adorned  with  glory  and  influence  beyond  the  dignity 
of  the  earthly  empire,  we  hand  over  and  relinquish  our 
palace,  the  city  of  Rome,  and  all  the  provinces,  places, 
and  cities  of  Italy  and  the  western  region,  to  the  most 
blessed  pontiff  and  universal  Pope  Silvester;  and  we 
ordain  by  our  pragmatic  constitution  that  they  shall  be 
governed  by  him  and  his  successors,  and  we  grant  that 
they  shall  remain  under  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Church." 

No  one  now  believes  that  Constantine  made  any 
such  donation  as  this,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
document  is  a  mere  forgery.  It  represents  a  tradition 
that  was  growing  up  at  the  Papal  court  at  this  critical 
period,  when  Rome  had  need  of  all  the  weapons,  legal 
as  well  as  material,  that  she  could  enlist  in  her  service 
against  the  ambition  and  strength  of  the  Lombards. 
The  Imperial  cause  in  Italy  was  clearly  doomed,  and 
as  the  power  of  the  Empire  decayed  the  prospect  of  the 
establishment  of  a  new  Itahan  kingdom,  as  large  as,  and 
more  stable  than,  that  of  Theodoric,  began  to  appear  as 
an  imminent  danger. 

Under  Aistulf 's  restless  and  able  leadership  the  Aistulf, 
Lombard  menace  soon  grew  pressing.  In  751  the^^^'^^^ 
Lombard  king  marched  against  Ravenna,  which  now 
fell  finally  into  his  hands,  the  last  exarch  taking  refuge 
in  Sicily.  Then,  after  one  more  campaign  against 
Spoleto,  the  king  began  to  close  in  on  his  destined 
victim,  the  Pope. 


126 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


U 


As  ruler  of  Kavenna,  what  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  claim  the  same  authority  over  Kome  that  previous 
rulers  of  Eavenna  had  exercised?  Accordingly  the 
strife  began  with  demands  for  tribute  and  recognition 
from  the  Pope.  In  vain  embassy  after  embassy  from 
Rome  confronted  the  Lombard  king;  in  vain  holy 
abbots  from  the  most  renowned  monasteries  of  Italy 
interceded  for  peace.  The  king  remained  inexorable. 
Then  a  new  figure  appears  upon  the  scenes :  John,  the 
Imperial  silentiarius,  bearing  a  letter  from  the  Emperor 
demanding  from  Aistulf  the  return  of  the  lands  he 
had  seized,  and  charging  the  Pope  to  secure  their  re- 
storation. To  all  which  Stephen  can  only  reply  by  a 
last  appeal  to  the  Emperor  to  come  to  the  deliverance  of 

the  city. 

But  while  the  Emperor  was  unable  to  respond  to  the 
appeal  there  was  another  power  from  whom  help  might 
be  secured,  and  Stephen  sent  a  private  letter  to  Pippin 
suggesting  that  he  should  invite  him  to  visit  the 
Frankish  Court.  The  Frankish  king  must  have  re- 
cognised that  by  accepting  this  proposal  he  was  com- 
mitting himself  to  the  championing  of  the  cause  of  the 
Pope  against  the  ancient  allies  of  his  people,  but  the 
spell  that  had  drawn  Visigoth,  Ostrogoth  and  Lombard 
from  the  Danube  to  the  Tiber  was  now  drawing  the 
greatest  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  towards  the  same  goal. 
The  ten  years  that  had  passed  since  the  death  of 
Charles  had  greatly  strengthened  the  influence  of  the 
Papacy  in  Northern  Europe.  Boniface,  now  nearly  at 
the  end  of  his  strenuous  hfe,  had  done  splendid  service 
for  the  Papal  cause,  and  the  support  given  by  Zacharias 


M 


I,  i 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS    127 

to  the  deposition  of  the  last  of  the  Merovingians  had 
forged  a  new  bond  of  union  between  Rome  and  Francia. 
Pippin  sent  two  messengers  to  convey  his  invitation 
to  the  Pope,  and  Stephen  sent  back  two  letters— one 
addressed  to  the  king  and  the  other  to  the  Frankish 
nobles,  who  might  be  expected  to  show  less  enthusiasm 
than  the  king  for  a  campaign  against  the  Lombards. 

Meanwhile  a  fresh  envoy  had  come  from  Constanti-  Pippin  and 
nople,  charging  the  Pope  to  go  in  person  to  demand  ^^' ^""^^ 
from  the  Lombard  king  the  restoration  of  the  Imperial 
territory.  A  messenger  sent  to  Aistulf  to  demand  a 
safe-conduct  for  the  Pope  returned  with  the  necessary 
guarantee  just  as  two  distinguished  Franks  arrived  to 
conduct  the  Pope  across  the  Alps.  These  were  Duke 
Autchar  and  Chrodegang,  Bishop  of  Metz,  the  most  im- 
portant Church  leader,  next  to  Boniface,  in  Francia. 
Stephen  accordingly  set  out  for  Pavia,  professedly  to 
support  the  demands  of  the  Imperial  envoys,  but  really 
to  demand  permission  to  visit  the  Frankish  Court,  a 
demand  that,  backed  by  the  support  of  Pippin's  two 
representatives,  the  Lombard  king  dared  not  refuse. 

To  cross  the  Great  St.  Bernard  in  November  was  no 
easy  task,  but  the  Pope  and  his  companions  safely 
reached  the  monastery  of  St.  Maurice  at  Agaunum, 
where  Fulrad  of  St.  Denis  and  Duke  Roland  met  the 
travellers  to  escort  them  to  the  court. 

Pippin  himself  with  his  family  came  south  to  a  royal 
palace  at  Ponthion,  in  Champagne,  and  the  king  sent 
his  eldest  son  Charles,  of  whom  we  now  hear  for  the 
first  time,  to  meet  the  Pope.  So  on  the  6th  of 
January,  754,  king  and  Pope  met  outside  Ponthion. 


128 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The  meeting  may  rightly  be  judged  one  of  the  most 
important  events  in  European  history.  For  if  Pippin 
had  not  decided  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Pope,  no- 
thing could  have  saved  Kome  from  faUing  into  the 
hands  of  the  Lombards,  and  while  the  Prankish  kings, 
free  from  the  entanglement  of  Italian  affairs,  would 
have  been  able  to  devote  themselves  to  the  building  up 
of  their  own  territories,  the  Lombards  might  have  united 
Italy  under  their  rule,  and  so  the  work  of  Bismarck 
and  Cavour  might  have  been  forestalled  by  a  thousand 

years. 

But  these  things  were  not  to  be.  Having  under- 
taken to  support  the  cause  of  the  Pope,  Pippin  was 
solemnly  crowned,  with  his  wife  and  sons,  and  an 
anathema  pronounced  on  any  who  should  hereafter 
attempt  to  dispossess  the  family  of  Pippin,  as  Pippin 
had  dispossessed  the  Merovingians.  At  the  same  time 
Stephen  conferred  on  Pippin  the  title  of  Patrician— a 
title  that  had  generally  been  held  by  the  Exarch  of 
Kavenna,  and  that,  strictly  speaking,  the  Emperor  alone 
had  the  right  to  grant.  This  act,  like  all  Stephen's 
course  of  action  at  this  crisis,  implied  a  practical 
repudiation  of  Imperial  authority  in  Italy;  it  was 
for  himself,  and  not  for  the  Emperor,  that  the  Pope 
requested  from  Pippin  the  sovereignty  of  the  exarchate 
and  its  subject  lands. 

But  however  willing  Pippin  might  be  to  champion 
the  cause  of  the  Pope,  questions  of  peace  and  war  could 
not,  among  the  Franks,  be  decided  on  the  mere  word 
of  the  king,  and  accordingly  a  general  assembly  of  the 
Prankish  nobles  was  held  near  Soissons,  at  which  Pippin 


« 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS  129 

was  able,  not  without  considerable  difficulty,  to  persuade 
his  chief  men  to  agree  to  the  war— or  at  least  to  the  open- 
ing of  such  negotiations  with  Aistulf  as  might  probably 
end  in  armed  conflict.     At  this  juncture  a  dramatic  scene 
occurred.     Carloman,  sent  apparently  by  the  Abbot  of  Carioman's 
Monte  Cassino,  suddenly  appeared  at  the  court  to  plead  ™'''''''' 
for  peace  between  his  brother  and  the  Lombard  king. 
We  do  not  know  what  motives  led  him  to  this  step, 
which  the  Papal  chronicler  attributes  to  the  ''  devilish 
persuasions  "  of  Aistulf.     We  only  know  that  Pippin 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  his  appeals,  and  sent  him    to  a 
monastery  somewhere  in  the  Prankish  kingdom,  where 
he  died  soon  after— a  pathetic  end  for  one  who  had  been 
a  great  warrior  and,  in  all  but  name,  a  king. 

What  promises  exactly  Pippin  made  to  the  Pope  in 
regard  to  the  Italian  possessions  of  the  Empire  is  a 
matter  of  controversy.  If  any  document  was,  as  later 
Papal  chroniclers  believe,  drawn  up,  no  trace  of  it  now 
remains.  It  is  probably  true  that  Pippin  intended  to 
secure  for  the  Pope  the  Exarchate  of  Kavenna.  He  cer- 
tainly did  not  intend  to  wrest  these  lands  from  Aistulf 
merely  to  hand  them  over  to  the  Emperor,  nor  did  he 
contemplate,  at  this  stage,  the  extension  of  his  own 
rule  to  the  lands  beyond  the  Alps. 

While  preparing  for  his  expedition  to  Italy  Pippin 
made  strenuous  efforts  to  secure  by  negotiation  the 
session  of  the  lands  that  Aistulf  had  seized.  It  was  only 
when  all  negotiations  proved  useless  that  the  host 
gathered  near  Soissons  for  the  great  expedition.  An 
advance  guard  succeeded  in  driving  Aistulf  from  Susa, 

where  he  was  watching  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  and  the 
9 


130 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


ii 


II 


main  army,  crossing  without  any  fighting,  laid  siege 
to  Pavia.  Finding  resistance  useless  Aistulf  sur- 
rendered, promising  to  restore  Eavenna  and  other  cities 
to  ''  the  Pope  and  the  Eoman  republic  ". 

But  no  sooner  had  Pippin  and  his  warriors  recrossed 
the  Alps  than  fresh  difficulties  arose,  and  a  series  of 
piteous  appeals  from  the  Pope  reached  the  Prankish 
Court.  Aistulf,  "  whose  heart  the  devil  has  invaded," 
has  restored  nothing,  but  was  heaping  such  insults  on 
the  Holy  Church  that  the  very  stones  might  weep. 

Pippin  might  have  listened  unmoved  to  these  com- 
plaints if  Aistulf  had  not  put  himself  hopelessly  in  the 
wrong  by  laying  siege  to  Eome  and  demanding  the 
surrender  of  the  person  of  the  Pope.  For  three  months 
the  siege  went  on,  and  the  Pope  waxed  more  urgent  in 
his  appeals  for  help.  ''  On  you,  after  God  and  St.  Peter, 
depend  the  lives  of  all  the  Eomans.  If  we  perish,  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  will  say,  '  Where  is  the  con- 
fidence of  the  Eomans  which  they  placed  in  the  kings 
and  the  nation  of  the  Franks  ? '" 

When  personal  appeals  seemed  in  vain,  the  Pope 

wrote  a  letter  purporting  to  be  addressed  by  St.  Peter 

to  the  kings,  bishops  and  nobles  of  the  Franks,  wherein 

the  apostle  urges  the  Franks,  as  they  value  their  own 

souls,  to  haste  to  the  rescue  of  that  city  of  Eome  which 

is  under  the  special  care  of  the  writer. 

Pippin's         Early  in  756  Pippin  set  out  for  another  expedition 

SpTdltioB,  into  Italy.     At  Pavia  he  was  met  by  two  envoys  from 

^^^         '  the  Emperor,  who  tried  to  persuade  him  to  restore  the 

exarchate  to  the  Empire— a  proposal  to  which  the  king 

emphatically  refused  to  consent. 


THE  POPE,  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  FRANKS  131 

Aistulf  was  soon  reduced  to  submission,  and  this  time 
the  Frankish  king  took  good  care  to  ensure  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  treaty,  by  which  twenty-three  cities  in  the 
exarchate  were  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Pope.  The 
keys  of  the  surrendered  cities  were  placed  in  the  sepul- 
chre of  St.  Peter  in  Eome,  and  by  that  act  the  Pope  at 
once  acquired  the  status  of  a  sovereign  prince  and  re- 
pudiated his  subjection  to  the  Empire. 

In  the  following  year  Aistulf  died,  killed  by  a  fall 
from  his  horse  while  out  hunting.  For  the  vacant 
throne  two  claimants  appeared.  One  of  these  was  a 
powerful  Lombard  lord,  Desiderius,  Duke  of  Tuscany 
a  favourite  of  the  late  king,  but  apparently  a  man  of 
humble  birth.  The  other  was  Eatchis,  who,  after  seven 
years  of  monastic  life  at  Monte  Cassino,  suddenly  es- 
caped to  Pavia  and  there  for  three  months  ruled  as 
king. 

War  between  the  rival  claimants  seemed  inevitable  • 
but  Desiderius  succeeded  in  securing  the  support  of  the 
Pope  by  the  promise  of  Bologna  and  several  other  cities 
that  Liutprand  had  captured  long  ago  from  the  exar- 
chate.    Eatchis  retired  from  the  unequal  contest,  and 
part  of  the  promised  territory  was  handed  over  to  the 
Pope  by  the  new  king  of  the  Lombards.    Just  after  this 
Stephen  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Paul 
who  occupied  the  Papal  chair  through  ten  comparatively 
uneventful  years.    The  relations  between  the  Pope  and 
the  Franks  remained  close  and  cordial,  though  Pippin 
took  no  further  share  in  Italian  affairs,  and  Paul  con- 
tnved  to  live  on  terms  of  comparative  peace  with  his 
Lombard  neighbour. 


132  THE  DAWN  OF  UKDlJEVAli  EUROPE 

The  Pope  and  the  Frankish  king  died  within  a  year 
of  each  other,  and  a  new  period  of  confusion  and  con- 
test followed  in  Italy,  ending  at  last  in  a  new  Frankish 
intervention  and  the  final  end  of  the  Lombard  king- 
dom. 


I! 


CHAPTEE  XIV 

THE  ICONOCLASTIC  EMPERORS 

'J'HE    history  of  the  Empire  in  the  eighth  century  The  Empire 

turns  ahnost  entirely  around  the  Iconoclastic  con-  l^h^th 
troversy.     After  the  great  siege  of  Constantinople  that^^"*"''^ 
opened  the  reign  of   Leo  III.  the   Saracens   did  not 
seriously  menace  the  heart  of  the  Empire,  though  they 
continued  their  attacks  on  the  outlying  provinces.    Nor, 
agam,  did  the  emperors   make   any  effective  attempt 
to  reassert  their  authority  in  Italy.     But  internally  the 
Empire  was  taking  the  form  that  it  was  destined  to 
retain  for  centuries.     In  language  and  customs  it  was 
losing  its  Roman  character  and  becoming  more  definitely 
Greek.     Already  the  law  books  of  Justinian  were  unin- 
telligible   to   the   people,    and    a   Greek   handbook   of 
law,  the  Ecloga,  was  drawn  up  under  the  Emperor's 
instructions. 

While  the  European  territories  of  the  Emperor  were 
becoming  more  Greek,  the  lands  of  Asia  Minor  were 
losing  their  Greek  population,  and  passing  into  the  hands 
of  men  of  Eastern  race  from  Syria,  Armenia  and  Persia. 

One  beneficial  result  of  the  Slavonic  settlements  in 
the  Balkan  district  was  the  disappearance  of  serfdom  in 
the  Empire,  the  place  of  the  serf  being  taken  by  free 
tenants  or  village  communes. 

133 


134 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


In  the  disturbed  conditions  of  the  time  it  is  not 
strange  that  hterature  and  art  should  have  decayed  and 
various  fooHsh  superstitions  grown  up.  Theology  had 
filled  the  East  with  controversy,  but  religion  was  at 
a  low  ebb,  and  the  moral  standard  of  the  clergy  was 
thoroughly  unsatisfactory.  The  task  that  lay  before  a 
reforming  emperor  was  sufficiently  discouraging. 
Siege  of  But  no  reform  could  begin  till  the  great  struggle  with 

nopCns  ^^e  Moslems,  the  impending  outbreak  of  which  had 
called  Leo  to  the  throne,  was  over.  Within  five 
months  of  the  apcession  of  the  new  Emperor,  the 
Saracen  commander  Moslemah,  with  eighty  thousand 
men,  had  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  begun  to  block- 
ade the  city  with  a  ditch  and  rampart.  On  the  1st  of 
September  Suleiman  arrived  with  a  fleet  of  eighteen 
hundred  warships. 

In  the  defence  of  the  city  ''Greek  fire"  plays  a 
leading  part.  This  ''Greek"  or  "Marine  fire,"  the 
exact  composition  of  which  is  not  known,  was  a  kind 
of  sticky  or  viscid  substance  of  a  highly  inflammable 
nature  that  was  poured  from  cauldrons  or  vomited  from 
tubes  on  to  the  ships  or  engines  of  the  enemy.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  first  used  in  the  siege  of  Constanti- 
nople of  673  and  the  following  years. 

Leo's  first  success  was  the  burning  of  twenty  trans- 
ports with  this  Greek  fire,  an  exploit  that  filled  the 
enemy  with  fear  of  this  deadly  weapon  of  defence.  In 
the  long  and  severe  winter  that  followed,  the  besiegers 
suffered  great  hardships,  but  in  the  spring  fresh  rein- 
forcements arrived.  Ill-fortune  dogged  the  Saracen 
cause.     A  large  number  of  Egyptian  Christians,  who 


136 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


were  serving  in  the  Moslem  fleet,  deserted  to  the  enemy, 
and  emboldened  by  this,  Leo  made  another  attack  on  the 
ships,  some  of  which  he  destroyed  and  threw  the  rest 
into  confusion.  Then  a  Saracen  army,  that  was  blockad- 
ing the  Asiatic  shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  was  surprised 
and  routed  by  a  body  of  Eoman  soldiers.  Famine  also 
began  to  threaten  the  besieging  army,  and  finally,  in  the 
summer  of  718,  a  Bulgarian  army  from  the  north  fell 
upon  the  Saracens  and  inflicted  severe  losses  on  them. 

On  the  15th  of  August  the  siege  was  raised  and  the 
Moslem  retreat  began.  The  army  succeeded  in  reaching 
Syria,  but  the  fleet  was  scattered  by  a  tempest,  and  only 
five  vessels  arrived  home  of  all  the  great  Armada  that 
was  to  open  the  gate  of  Europe  to  the  Moslems.  Arab 
records  put  the  loss  on  the  Saracen  side  at  not  less  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men. 

The  defence  of  Constantinople  by  Leo  deserves  to 
rank  with  the  battle  fought  by  Charles  Martel  fourteen 
years  later.  They  represent  the  two  supreme  attempts 
made  by  the  Ommeyad  dynasty  to  break  through  the 
great  barriers  that  guarded  Christendom  from  Moslem 
attack.  From  this  time  the  tide  of  battle  turned,  and 
the  rest  of  the  century  saw  the  gradual  decline  of  Saracen 
rule  both  in  the  east  and  in  the  west.  In  750  the 
last  Caliph  of  the  Ommeyad  dynasty  was  slain,  and 
Damascus  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  new  dynasty  of  the 
Abbasides.  Only  in  Spain  did  the  Ommeyad  party  retain 
power,  and  the  Moslems  of  the  west  were  henceforth 
cut  off  from  all  connection  with  those  of  the  east. 

The  deliverance  of  Constantinople  was  immediately 
eSX726    followed  by  the  outbreak  of  the  Iconoclastic  controversy. 


Icono- 
clastic 


THE  ICONOCLASTIC  EMPERORS 


137 


This  great  contest,  which  was  destined  to  cause  the  final 
severance  between  Eastern  and  Western  Europe,  and 
so  prepare  the  way  for  the  establishment  of  a  Western 
Empire,  was  the  outcome  of  an  edict  issued  by  Leo  in 
72G  ordering  the  removal  of  pictures  and  images  from  the 
churches.     It  is  often  said  that  Leo  was  moved  to  this 
step  by  the  jeers  of  the   Moslems,  who  charged  the 
Christians  with  idolatry.   But  he  was  probably  influenced 
quite  as  much  by  the  growth  of  childish  superstitions  con- 
nected with  the  pictures  and  coloured  figures  that  adorned 
the  churches.     A  little  before  this  time  a  sect  had  arisen 
in  Asia  Minor  calling  themselves  Paulicians  (followers 
of  St.  Paul),  one  of  whose  distinctive  tenets  was  belief 
in  the  evil  of  matter  and  therefore  the  repudiation  of 
symbols.     There  is  probably  some  direct  connection  be- 
tween these  Paulicians  and  the  Albigenses  and  Wal- 
denses  of  later  times,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  they 
influenced    the    Isaurian    emperors    in    their   religious 
policy. 

To  some  extent  the  Iconoclastic  edict  was  the  out- 
come of  the  theological  controversy  that  had  played  so 
large  a  part  in  Byzantine  history  in  the  previous  century. 

The  Monophysites,  whom  the  emperors  of  the  seventh 
century  frequently  supported,  held  the  view  that  our 
Lord's  human  nature  was  absorbed  and  lost  in  the 
Divine,  and  it  seemed  to  follow  from  this  that  any  at- 
tempt to  represent  the  Saviour  in  human  form  was  to 
be  discouraged  as  bringing  into  prominence  that  human 
side  of  His  being  that  was  only  an  illusion.  For  the 
same  reason  image-worshippers  claimed  to  be  defenders 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  true  humanity  of  Christ. 


138 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


But  as  the  controversy  proceeded  it  broadened  out 
into  a  general  attack  by  the  rationalistic  spirit  on  the 
ecclesiastical  tendencies  of  the  time — a  kind  of  eighth- 
century  Lutheranism.  Mariolatry,  the  worship  of 
saints  and  the  adoration  of  relics  were  included  in  the 
Imperial  condemnation  under  Constantine  V.,  and  mon- 
asticism  itself  was  attacked  by  his  reforming  zeal. 

The  chief  support  of  the  Imperial  policy  came  from 
the  army,  which  was  recruited  to  a  considerable  extent 
from  the  same  district  in  the  highlands  of  Asia  from 
which  the  Isaurian  emperors  derived  their  name.  Its 
chief  opponents  were  the  monks,  who  were  the  leaders 
of  missionary  work.  Their  ground  of  opposition  may 
be  summarised  in  a  saying  of  Gregory  the  Great,  "  Pic- 
tures are  the  lesson-books  of  the  unlearned  '*.  Un- 
doubtedly the  great  numbers  of  unlearned  people  who 
had  recently  passed  over  from  heathenism  to  Christianity 
tended  to  carry  image-worship  to  what  men  on  both 
sides  admitted  were  excessive  and  superstitious  lengths ; 
but  on  the  other  hand  it  was  urged  that  without  the 
help  provided  by  these  outward  symbols  many  of  them 
would  find  the  new  faith  impossible  to  understand. 

But  while  many  thoughtful  men  regarded  the  Imperial 
edict  as  an  attempt  to  solve  by  mere  force  a  question  that 
needed  much  more  deHcate  handling,  the  populace  raged 
against  the  destruction  of  images,  to  which  the  greatest 
veneration  was  attached.  Eiots  broke  out  even  in 
Constantinople  itself,  and  in  Italy  it  was  impossible  to 
enforce  the  edict  at  all.  Germanus,  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, resigned  rather  than  assent  to  the  Imperial 
policy,  which  involved  a  claim  to  interfere  in  ecclesiastical 


THE  ICONOCLASTIC  EMPERORS 


139 


questions  to  which  he  could  not  submit.  Leo  appointed 
a  new  patriarch  favourable  to  his  policy,  but  Pope  Gre- 
gory refused  to  recognise  him,  and  most  of  the  church- 
men of  the  Empire  repudiated  his  authority.  An 
unsuccessful  attempt  was  even  made  to  set  up  a  rival 
emperor. 

On  Leo's  death,  in  741,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  sonConstan- 
Constantine,  who  received  the  opprobrious  nickname  of  nymS!^'*'' 
Copronymus.     Constantine  was  as  resolute  an  Icono- ^^^"^''^ 
clast  as  his  father,  and  much  more  uncompromising  in 
the  measures  he  took  to  enforce  the  edicts.     After  put- 
ting down,  with  considerable  difficulty,  a  rebellion  of  his 
brother-in-law  Artavasdos,  he  had  to  face  an  even  more 
pressmg  peril  in  a  devastating  plague  that  swept  through 
the  Empire  and  practically  depopulated  Constantinople. 
Constantine  imported  fresh  families  from  Greece  to  fill 
the  almost  empty  city,  leaving  Slavs  from  the  north  to 
fill  the  vacant  lands  in  Greece.     It  is  from  this  time 
that  Constantinople  can  be  regarded  as  Greek  rather 
than  lioman,  though  it  still  jealously  kept  the  Roman 
name. 

Constantine  succeeded  in  stamping  out  all  public  dis- 
obedience to  his  father's  edicts,  but  he  really  only  drove 
the  custom  of  image-worship  into  secrecy.  In  758  he 
called  a  great  council  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
bishops,  which  condemned  all  representations  of  our  Lord 
and  all  worship  of  images  of  saints.  When  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  declined  to  accept  the  decisions  of  the 
council,  Constantine  practically  declared  war  on  the 
monastic  system  and  demolished  a  considerable  number 
of  monasteries. 


140 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  ICONOCLASTIC  EMPERORS 


141 


Leo  IV., 

775-780 


\Hl 


On  the  frontiers  he  defended  the  Empire  efficiently, 
frequently  driving  back  Saracens  in  the  east  and  sub- 
duing Slavs  in  the  north.  He  waged  three  successful 
wars  with  the  Bulgarians  and  developed  the  internal 
resources  of  the  Empire. 

After  a  reign  of  thirty-five  years,  Constantine  died  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Leo  IV. — **  the  Khazar,"  as 
he  was  called,  after  the  tribe  to  which  his  mother  be- 
longed. In  768  he  had  married  an  Athenian  lady  Irene, 
by  whom  he  had  one  son  Constantine.  In  780  Leo  died, 
having  in  his  short  reign  shown  his  determination  to 
maintain  his  father's  policy.  But  the  Empress,  who 
now  became  mistress  of  the  Empire  as  regent  for  her 
son,  was  secretly  in  favour  of  image-worship,  and  at 
once  set  herself  to  undo  the  policy  of  the  Isaurian  house. 
As  a  first  step  to  this  end  the  five  half-brothers  of  the 
late  Emperor  were  compelled  to  take  holy  orders  in  order 
to  be  incapacitated  from  reigning.  When,  three  years 
later,  the  Patriarch  Paul  resigned,  she  determined  to 
advance  her  own  secretary,  Tarasius,  to  the  vacant  office. 
He  agreed  on  condition  that  a  council  should  meet  to 
settle  the  controversy,  After  some  delay,  due  to  the  op- 
position of  the  army,  some  regiments  of  which  had  to 
be  sent  away  from  the  capital,  the  council  met,  in  Sep- 
tember, 787,  at  Nicaea.  The  issue  of  its  deliberations  was 
never  in  doubt,  and  the  final  decree  orders  images  to  be 
set  up  in  churches  for  worship  {7rpo(TKvvr]cn<;) ,  but  not  for 
the  adoration  {Xarpka)  that  belongs  only  to  God,  "  foras- 
much as  the  honour  paid  to  an  image  passeth  on  to  the 
original,  and  he  who  adoreth  an  image  doth  in  it  adore 
the   person  of  him  whom  it   doth   represent ".     It   is 


worth  remembering  that  the  **  images  "  here  referred 
to  are  paintings  or  mosaics  on  a  flat  surface,  and  statues 
are  still  not  used  in  the  Greek  Church. 

But  scarcely  had  this  great  success  for  Irene's  policy  Irene. 
been  secured  before  she  found  herself  involved  in  a  con-  '^^^'^^^ 
test  for  power  with  her  own  son.  An  unsuccessful 
attack  on  Southern  Italy,  due  to  a  rupture  of  friendly 
relations  with  the  Prankish  King  Charles,  aroused  dis- 
content with  Irene's  rule,  and  Constantine,  now  grown 
to  man's  estate,  attempted  to  throw  off  his  mother's 
yoke.  The  plot  was  discovered,  and  Constantine  was 
whipped  and  confined  to  his  room  like  a  schoolboy. 
Irene  then  demanded  from  the  soldiers  a  new  oath,  in 
I  which  they  pledged  themselves  not  to  accept  her  son  as 

their  ruler  while  she  lived.     This  led  to  a  revolt  of  the 
army,  already  indignant  at  the  Empress'  policy,  and  Con- 
stantine  was   liberated   and   Irene  imprisoned   in  her 
palace.     But  in  792  Constantine,  now  apparently  secure 
on  his  throne,  liberated  his  mother.     Just  before  this 
he  had,  as  a  punishment  for  a  real  or  supposed  con- 
spiracy, blinded  one  of  his  uncles  and  spHt  the  tongues 
of   the  others.     For  four  years  Irene  remained  to  all 
outward  appearance  on  friendly  terms  with  her  son,  but 
in  795  he  laid  himself  open  to  attack  by  repudiating  his 
wife  Maria,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  against  his 
will  after  a  project  for  a  marriage  with  a  daughter  of 
Charles  the  Great  had  fallen  through,   and  marrying 
Theodote,  one  of  the  maids  of  honour.     This  step  aHen- 
ated  the  Church  leaders  of  the  Empire,  and  probably 
helped  Irene  to  form  a  party.     In  797  Constantine  was 
attacked  by  some  soldiers,  fled    to  Asia,  was  brought 


142 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Nice- 

phonis, 

802-811 


back  by  some  treacherous  friends,  and  was  finally  blinded 
by  his  mother's  orders  in  the  very  room  in  the  palace 
in  which  he  had  been  born.  He  lingered  on  for  many 
years  in  blindness  and  misery. 

Irene  was  now  sole  ruler  of  the  Empire,  but  the  real 
power  was  in  the  hands  of  two  rival  eunuchs  of  the 
palace,  Stauracius  and  ^tius,  who  successively  gained 
the  patronage  of  their  mistress.  The  four  years  of 
Irene's  supremacy  are  marked  in  history  by  the  corona- 
tion of  Charles  as  Emperor  in  the  West,  an  event  prob- 
ably not  unconnected  with  the  fact  that  the  Empire 
had  now  passed  under  the  **  monstrous  regiment  of 
women  ".  In  802  the  magnates  of  the  Empire  deter- 
mined to  bring  this  condition  of  things  to  an  end,  and 
chose  one  of  their  number,  Nicephorus,  whom  they  pro- 
ceeded to  proclaim  as  emperor.  Irene  fell  undefended 
and  unregretted,  and  was  sent  to  end  her  life  at  Lesbos, 
where  she  died  a  year  later.  Her  crimes  did  not  pre- 
vent her  memory  from  being  held  in  reverence  as  the 
restorer  of  image-worship. 

The  history  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  in  the  ninth 
century  need  not  be  told  in  much  detail,  as  it  has  little 
direct  bearing  on  the  general  course  of  European  affairs. 

Nicephorus,  the  new  Emperor,  inherited  a  war  with 
the  Caliph,  the  celebrated  Haroun-al-Easchid,  and  with 
the  new  Emperor  of  the  West,  Charles  the  Great.  Both 
these  he  brought  to  an  end,  the  first  at  the  cost  of  a  tribute 
of  thirty  thousand  solidi,  the  second  without  any  session 
of  territory  or  money.  But  he  and  his  son  were  killed 
in  811  in  an  expedition  against  the  Bulgarians,  and  a 
series  of  emperors  successively  seized  the  throne,  none 


THE  ICONOCLASTIC  EMPERORS 


143 


of  them  holding  it  long,  till  Michael  the  Amorian,  a 
turbulent   soldier,  was   raised  to  power   in  820.     His 
reign  is  chiefly  notable  for  the  loss  of  Sicily  and  Crete, 
which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Moslems.     His  son 
Theophilus,  who  succeeded  on  his  death  in  829,  resumed 
the  Iconoclastic  pohcy  of  the  Isaurians.     But  again  the 
work  of   suppressing  image-worship  was  undone  by  a 
woman's  influence.     Theophilus    died   in  842,  leaving 
his  wife  Theodora  as  regent  for  their  little  son  Michael. 
Theodora  was  secretly  a  strong  partisan  of  the  image- 
worshipping  party,  and  no  sooner  was  she  in  office  than 
a  fresh   reaction  began  and   image-worship  was  again 
restored.     When    Michael   grew  up   he    banished   his 
mother  and  ruled  with  the  advice  of  his  uncle  Bardas, 
a  depraved  and  drunken  man,  whose  influence  over  the 
young  Emperor  was  wholly  bad.     However,  in  866  he 
was  slain  by  the  Emperor's  orders,  and  Michael  then 
chose  as  his  colleague  an  able  young  officer,  Basil  the 
Macedonian,  who  repaid  his  patron  by  murdering  him  a 
year  later,  and  so  becoming  sole  Emperor  in  the  East. 

The  Macedonian  dynasty,  thus  inaugurated,  ruled  the 
Byzantine  Empire  for  two  hundred  years,  on  the  whole 
with   ability  and   success.     Under   Basil    the    Empire 
reconquered    Southern    Italy   from   the    Saracens   and 
carried   successful  raids  into   Syria  and    Mesopotamia. 
He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Leo  (886-912),  who  was  a 
student  and  dabbler  in  literature,  and  earned  the  name 
of  **  the  Wise,"  because  he  was  supposed  to  be  learned 
in  curious  arts.     It  was  fortunate  for  the  Empire  that 
the  decreasing  power  of  the  Caliphs  and  the  confusion 
of  Western  Europe  insured  immunity  from   external 


Michael 
"the  Drun- 
kard," 
842-867 


144 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


attack  and  even  enabled  the  Imperial  frontiers  to  be  ex- 
tended in  Southern  Italy  and  in  the  East.  Leo's  son 
Constantine,  '*  Porphyrogenitus  "  as  he  was  called,  be- 
cause he  was  the  first  emperor  for  a  considerable  time 
who  had  been  born  during  his  father's  reign,  carried  on 
his  father's  habit  of  interest  in  literature,  while  the 
actual  work  of  government  was  left  to  the  great  officials 
of  State.  Among  the  most  important  events  of  the 
period  were  the  missionary  labours  of  two  brothers, 
Cyril  and  Methodius,  who  reduced  the  language  of  the 
Balkan  Slavs  to  writing,  and  translated  the  Bible  into 
it.  About  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  the  Bul- 
garian King  Boris  and  the  Servian  King  Eadoslav  were 
baptised,  and  Christianity  was  formally  adopted  as  the 
religion  of  both  peoples.  So  we  leave  the  Byzantine 
Empire  at  peace,  developing  its  internal  resources  and 
commerce,  free  at  last  from  theological  controversies, 
and  tending  more  and  more  to  a  life  of  its  own  outside 
the  main  stream  of  European  progress. 


CHAPTEK  XV 

CHARLES  THE  GREAT  AND  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM 

nnHE  accession  of  Charles,  eldest  son  of  Pippin,  brings 
on  the  scene  the  central  figure  of  the  period 
covered  by  this  volume.  For  the  period  might  not 
inaccurately  be  described  as  the  period  of  the  rise  and 
fall  of  Prankish  supremacy  in  Europe.  From  the  first 
appearance  of  Clovis  as  king  at  Tournai  in  481  to  the 
death  of  Conrad  of  Franconia  in  918  it  is  the  history  of 
the  Franks  that  forms  the  central  thread  in  the  tangle 
of  European  affairs.  And  it  was  in  the  person  of 
Charles  the  Great  that  the  Prankish  people  made  its 
special  contribution  to  the  life  and  thought  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  In  him  the  free  Teutonic  spirit  submitted  itself 
to  the  conception  of  ordered  rule  that  was  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  both  passed  under  the 
consecration  of  a  religious  sanction  that  turned  the  war- 
leader  of  a  Teutonic  tribe  into  the  crusader  and 
champion  of  the  Christian  cause. 

Charles,  as  he  appears  in  the  chronicles  of  the  time, 
is  almost  an  ideal  Teutonic  king.  Of  enormous  physi- 
cal strength,  resolute  will  and  untiring  energy,  he  was  a 
bom  leader  of  men.  Except  when  moved  by  strong 
passion,  he  was  just  and  clement  in  his  dealings  with 
his  enemies.  Even  his  Saxon  antagonists  bear  testi- 
10  145 


146 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


mony  to  his  bravery  and  good  faith.  Though  his  poUcy 
embraced  the  whole  Western  Empire,  he  remained  an 
Austrasian  at  heart,  and  retained  the  language  and 
costume  of  his  native  country. 

And  against  the  background  of  that  rough  and  tur- 
bulent age  he  stands  out  as  something  not  far  short  of 
the  ideal  of  a  Christian  king ;  not  free  from  the  limita- 
tions of  his  own  age— an  age  that  had  learnt  only  too 
well  from  its  Moslem  foes  how  to  propagate  the 
faith  with  the  sword— but  keeping  before  him  the 
true  ideal  of  a  Christian  society  bound  in  the  bond  of 
brotherhood   by    common  obedience    to  the   Christian 

law. 
Chariesand  On  the  death  of  Pippin  the  usual  division  of  inherit- 
768-771^'''  ance  followed.  All  the  northern  and  more  purely  Teu- 
tonic part  of  the  Frankish  kingdom  fell  to  Charles  as  the 
eldest  son ;  the  southern  lands— Burgundy,  Provence, 
Suabia — passed  to  his  other  son,  Carloman,  a  youth 
about  ten  years  younger.  But  for  some  reason  that  is 
not  very  clear,  the  two  sons  of  Pippin  did  not  succeed 
in  co-operating  with  the  same  harmony  as  had  marked 
the  joint  rule  of  their  father  and  uncle.  An  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  this  ill-feeling  was  afforded  soon  after 
their  accession  by  a  revolt  in  Aquetaine,  led  by  Hunold, 
who,  after  twenty  years  of  monastic  life,  returned  to  the 
world  to  avenge  the  death  of  his  son  Waifer.  Charles 
marched  into  Aquetaine,  but  Carloman  declined  to  help 
and  left  his  brother  to  cope  with  the  rebellion  alone. 
Fortunately  it  did  not  prove  a  very  difficult  task. 
Hunold  was  defeated  and  surrendered  to  Charles,  who 
sent  him  to  Kome  to  be  dealt   with  by  the  Pope  for 


CHARLES  THE  GREAT  AND  LOMBARD  KINGDOM    147 

breach  of  his  monastic  vows.  After  a  short  residence 
in  a  Roman  monastery,  he  escaped  to  Pavia,  where  he 
was  stoned  to  death.  Meanwhile  Charles,  having  built 
a  fortress  at  Fronsac  to  overawe  the  Aquetanians, 
returned  in  triumph  to  Francia. 

The  next  few  years  were  occupied  by  Charles  in  forg- 
ing alliances  with  neighbouring  states,  with  a  view  to  a 
possible  conflict  with  Carloman.  Tassilo  of  Bavaria, 
Charles'  cousin,  had  been  a  rebel  against  Pippin's 
authority,  but  Charles  overlooked  this  and  entered  into 
friendly  relations  with  him.  Several  things  made  the 
friendship  of  the  Bavarian  duke  important.  Bavaria 
lay  between  the  Frankish  territories  of  the  north  and 
the  passes  of  the  Alps,  beyond  which  lay  the  Italy  to- 
wards which  Charles'  eyes  may  already  have  turned. 
In  another  way  Tassilo  linked  Francia  and  Italy,  for  he 
had  married  a  daughter  of  Desiderius,  king  of  the 
Lombards,  and  through  him  Charles  entered  into  a 
friendly  understanding  with  the  Lombard  king.  This 
understanding  ripened  into  a  proposal  for  a  twofold 
marriage  alliance  between  the  two  houses,  Charles 
espousing  Desiderius'  daughter  Desiderata,  and  his 
sister  Gisla  marrying  Desiderius'  son  Adelchis. 

Even  before  Queen  Bertha  reached  the  Koman  Court 
to  announce  these  marriage  arrangements  to  the  new 
Pope,  Stephen  II.,  he  had  sent  an  angry  letter  to  the 
two  Frankish  kings,  denouncing  the  proposed  marriage 
between  the  ruler  of  Francia  and  the  ''  leprous  brood  " 
of  the  Lombards.  But  in  spite  of  Papal  opposition  the 
marriage  took  place,  and  shortly  after,  the  Pope  was 
himself  obliged  to  appeal  for  the  help  of   Desiderius 


I  a 


148 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


in  putting  down  a  conspiracy  at  Eome,  the  details  of 
which  are  rather  obscure. 

But  the  marriage  of  Charles  and  Desiderata  was 
destined  to  the  same  unhappy  ending  as  that  of  Henry 
VIII.  and  Catherine  of  Arragon  seven  hundred  years 
later.  Desiderata  was  delicate  and  bore  no  child  to  her 
husband,  and  a  beautiful  Suabian  girl,  Hildegarde,  played 
the  part  of  Anne  Boleyn.  So  Charles  repudiated  his 
wife,  in  spite  of  his  mother  Bertha's  protests,  and  De- 
siderata returned  to  her  father  at  Pavia. 

Soon  after  this  the  short-lived  friendship  between  the 
Lombard  king  and  the  Pope  came  to  an  end.    Desiderius 
felt  the  toils  closing  around  him,  when  the   death  of 
Carloman   threw  into   his   hands   a  valuable   hostage. 
Gerberga,  Carloman's  widow,  beheving,  or  affecting  to 
beheve,  that   her  two  httle  sons  were  in  danger,  fled 
with   them   to  the  Lombard  Court,  where  Desiderius 
gave  them  a  welcome. 
The  fall  of      Just  at  this  stage  Pope  Stephen  died  and  was  suc- 
lardthig-  ceeded  by  Hadrian,  a  stronger  and  perhaps  abler  leader, 
dom.774    ^j^^  threw  himself    wholly  into  the  policy  of  alHance 
with  the  Franks  and  hostihty  to  the  Lombards.     From 
that  moment  the  doom  of  the  Lombard  kingdom  was 
certain.     The  special  purpose  of  Desiderius  was  to  sow 
dissension  between  Charles  and  the  Pope  by  inducing 
Hadrian  to  crown  the  two  little  sons  of  Carloman.     In 
this  he  was  supported  by  a  Lombard  party  among  the 
Papal  advisors  ;  and  when  the  Pope  discovered  a  treason- 
able correspondence  going  on  between  his  chamberlain 
Afiarta  and  Desiderius,  and  had  his  officer  arrested  and 
executed,  the  Lombard  king  set  out  for  Kome,  where 


CHARLES  THE  GREAT  AND  LOMBARD  KINGDOM    149 

he  might  have  succeeded  in  deposing  the  Pope  and 
setting  up  a  rival  in  his  own  interest.  But  under 
threat  of  excommunication  he  hesitated  at  the  frontier 
and  finally  turned  back. 

Meanwhile  Hadrian  sent  in  hot  haste  to  Charles, 
appealing  to  him  for  help.  Charles  appears  to  have 
tried  to  avoid  a  final  breach  with  the  Lombard  king, 
and  sent  commissioners  to  investigate  the  causes  of 
quarrel  between  Hadrian  and  Desiderius.  But  when 
Desiderius  refused  all  recognition  of  the  claims  of  the 
Pope  to  the  cities  that  he  had  seized  in  the  exarchate, 
Charles  found  himself  obliged  to  act.  He  gathered  a 
great  host  at  Geneva,  and  sent  half,  under  the  com- 
mand of  his  uncle  Bemhard,  through  the  St.  Gothard 
Pass,  while  he  led  the  other  half  through  the  Mount 
Cenis,  at  the  end  of  which  he  found  the  Lombards, 
under  the  king's  son  Adelchis,  posted  in  a  strong  posi- 
tion, from  which  they  were  only  dislodged  after  some 
stiff  fighting.  Then,  after  taking  one  by  one  the  other 
cities  of  Lombardy,  Charles  gathered  all  his  forces  round 
the  capital  city  of  Pavia,  where  Desiderius,  with  the 
remains  of  his  army,  had  taken  refuge.  Adelchis  fled 
to  Constantinople,  where  he  became  a  useful  pawn  in 
the  game  that  the  Eastern  Court  found  it  convenient  to 
play. 

In  June,  774,  Pavia  fell,  and  with  its  fall  the  Lom- 
bards, as  a  nation,  vanish  from  history.  The  two  little 
sons  of  Carloman  disappeared  from  the  scene,  and 
Desiderius  and  his  wife  ended  their  days  in  separate 
religious  houses  in  Francia,  while  Charles  now  adopted 
the  title  of  Rex  Francoruni  et  Langobardorum. 


i  I 


150  THE  PAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  some  regret  at  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  last  of  those  rulers  of  Northern  Italy, 
who  might,  under  happier  circumstances,  have  vindicated 
their  right  to  the  title  of  King  of  Italy.  The  Lombards 
had  come  to  Italy  an  uncouth  but  virile  race ;  under 
the  genial  influence  of  Italian  skies  they  had  lost  much 
of  their  uncouthness  and  also  not  a  little  of  their  viriHty. 
A  hardier  northern  race  broke  their  power  at  last,  and 
they  were  slowly  merged  and  lost  in  the  Italian  peoples 
among  whom  they  had  made  their  home.  On  the  ruins 
of  the  Lombard  kingdom  rose  the  two  great  powers  that 
were  destined  to  make  the  history  of  Western  Europe  for 
five  hundred  years— the  Empire  and  the  Papacy. 
Charles'  Before  the  fall  of  Pavia,  at  Easter,  774,  Charles  paid 

Rome^774  his  first  visit  to  Eome.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a 
Prankish  king  had  visited  the  sacred  city,  and  every 
effort  was  made  to  do  honour  to  his  coming.  When  he 
met  the  long  procession  of  the  Eoman  clergy  coming 
out  with  banners  and  songs  to  greet  him,  he  dismounted 
from  his  horse,  and  so  passed  into  the  city.  There 
Hadrian  met  him  and  ratified  the  '*  Holy  League  "  that 
united  the  Papal  destinies  with  those  of  the  northern 
kingdom.  For  seven  days  Charles  stayed  in  Kome, 
viewing  the  wonders  of  the  city  and  falling  under  the 
spell  of  the  ordered  splendour  of  the  Church  life  that 
he  saw  around  him.  One  event  of  this  visit  has  become 
the  centre  of  great  controversy.  Let  us  hear  the 
chronicler  in  the  Liher  Pontificalis  :— 

'*  On  the  fourth  day  of  the  week,  the  Pope,  with  his 
officers,  went  forth  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  and 
there  meeting  the  king  in    conference,  earnestly   en- 


CHARLES  THE  GREAT  AND  LOMBARD  KINGDOM    151 

treated  him,  and  exhorted  him  with  paternal  affection, 
that  he  would  fulfil  completely  the  promise   that   his 


i^rennir 


ITALY 
768-813 

Papal  Territoru 

Lombard  Kingdom 
and  Duchies 

^  Byzantine  Territory  Iv7 


i     =   ;   11 


Qar'QarigHano 


BV  <<SaA>Ustv/ve^O»Wl^^.^ 


father.  Pippin  of  blessed  memory,  had  made,  and  that 
he  himself  with  his  brother  Carloman  and  all  the  nobles 


i» 


152 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


of  the  Franks  had  confirmed  to  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar 
Pope  Stephen  II.,  when  he  had  visited  Francia,  that 
they  would  grant  various  cities  and  territories  in  that 
province  of  Italy  to  St.  Peter  and  his  vicar  for  a  per- 
petual possession.  And  when  the  king  had  caused  the 
promise  that  had  been  made  in  a  place  called  Carisiacum 
to  be  read  over  to  him,  all  its  contents  were  approved 
by  himself  and  his  nobles.  And  of  his  own  accord, 
with  good  and  willing  mind,  the  most  excellent  and 
Christian  king  caused  another  deed  of  gift  to  be  drawn 
up  like  the  first,  by  Etherius  his  chaplain  and  notary, 
and  in  this  he  granted  the  same  cities  and  territories  to 
St.  Peter,  and  promised  that  they  should  be  conveyed  to 
the  Pope  with  their  boundaries  set  forth  as  contained 
in  the  aforesaid  donation,  namely:  From  Luna  with 
the  island  of  Corsica,  thence  to  Surianum,  thence  to 
Mons  Bardonis,  thence  to  Parma,  thence  to  Ehegium, 
and  from  thence  to  Mantua  and  Mons  Silicis,  and  also 
the  whole  Exarchate  of  Eavenna,  such  as  it  was  in  old 
time,  and  the  provinces  of  Venetia  and  Istria ;  and  also 
the  Duchies  of  Spoleto  and  Beneventum." 

Many  theories  have  been  advanced  as  to  the  meaning 
of  this  passage,  which  seems  to  imply  that  Charles 
handed  over  to  the  Pope  practically  all  Italy  except  part 
of  the  old  Lombard  kingdom  of  the  North,  and,  ap- 
parently, Calabria.  Did  he  mean  that  whatever  rights 
the  emperors  still  retained  in  Italy  he  now  proposed  to 
transfer  to  the  Pope  ?  That  is  perhaps  the  most  reason- 
able explanation  of  the  grant,  if  the  account  can  be 
relied  upon ;  but  some  are  disposed  to  suspect  the  hand 
of  the  interpolator  of  a  later  time,  supplying  material 


CHARLES  THE  GREAT  AND  LOMBARD  KINGDOM  153 

on  which  the  Popes  of  after  ages  might  base  claims 
unforeseen  in  the  days  when  the  Prankish  king  and 
the  Roman  pontiff  met. 

One  thing  at  least  is  clear.  Charles  never  acted  as 
though  he  had  conferred  on  the  Pope  a  position  of  inde- 
pendent sovereignty.  "Whatever  had  been  the  relation 
of  the  Popes  to  the  Byzantine  emperors  at  an  earlier 
time,  that  he  regarded  as  their  relation  to  himself. 
They  had  merely  transferred  their  allegiance  to  a 
new  overlord,  better  able  to  help,  but  also  better  able 
to  control. 


THE  SAXON  WARS 


155 


CHAPTEK  XVI 


THE  SAXON  WARS 


A  T  the  time  of  Charles'  accession  to  the  Frankish 
throne  the  northern  frontier  of  his  kingdom 
followed  the  Hne  of  the  Khine  as  far  as  Cologne,  and 
then  turned  due  east,  parallel  with  the  course  of  the 
Main,  till  a  Httle  beyond  the  Weser,  where  the  Thur- 
ingian  Franks  fronted  the  Slavonic  tribes  farther  east. 
North  of  this  frontier  line  the  territories  of  the  Saxons 
stretched  up  to  the  borders  of  Denmark  and  along  the 
Elbe.  Like  the  Franks  and  the  Alemannians,  the 
Saxons  were  a  confederation  of  Teutonic  tribes,  whose 
original  home  had  been  in  Holstein.  From  early  times 
they  had  taken  to  a  seafaring  life,  and  became  the 
terror  of  the  Frisian  and  British  coasts  in  the  last  days 
of  the  Koman  rule.  With  the  fall  of  Eoman  authority 
in  the  west  many  of  them  had  crossed  the  channel  to 
find  new  homes  in  Britain,  while  others  turned  south- 
ward and  occupied  the  district  between  the  Elbe  and 

the  Ehine. 

Among  the  Saxons  local  independence  was  strong. 
Each  district  had  its  own  chief,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  there  was  any  general  assembly  of  the  Saxons 
like  the  "  Marchfield  "  of  the  Franks.  A  certain  bond 
of  union  seems  to  have  been  supplied  by  a  sacred  pole 

154 


called  the  Irminsul,  which  had  apparently  been  carried 
with  them  in  their  migrations,  and  finally  placed  in  the 
woods  at  Eresburg,  where  gatherings  for  tribal  worship 
were  occasionally  held. 

For  practical  purposes  the  Saxons  were  at  this  time 
divided  into  four  groups — the  Nordliudi,  north  of  the 
Elbe;  the  OstfaH,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Elbe;  the 
Angrarii  in  the  valley  of  the  Weser;  and  the  Westfah, 
between  the  Weser  and  the  Khine.  They  lived  under 
strict  laws,  in  scattered  villages,  and  were  masters  of 
the  art  of  guerilla  warfare.  No  missionary  had  yet 
penetrated  into  their  country,  and  though  Pippin  had 
reduced  them  to  a  nominal  submission  they  remained 
still  practically  independent. 

Charles  was  moved  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  the 
Saxons  partly  to  protect  the  frontier  lands  from  their 
raids,  but  even  more  by  a  desire  to  bring  these  heathen 
tribes  to  Christianity.  He  could  hardly  have  foreseen 
that  by  that  work  of  conquest  he  was  preparing  the 
way  for  the  shifting  of  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the 
Eastern  kingdom  from  the  Frank  to  the  Saxon — from 
Aachen  on  the  Ehine  to  Magdeburg  on  the  Elbe,  and 
so  preparing  also  for  the  development  of  the  more 
Eomanised  West  Francia  into  a  separate  kingdom  of 
France. 

Charles'  wars  with  the  Saxons  lasted  for  thirty  years  The  Saxon 
and  involved  at  least  eighteen  campaigns.     In  772  he  772  ^*^^°'^' 
led  his  first  expedition  into  Saxony,  stormed  the  fort 
of  Eresburg  and  destroyed  the  Irminsul — in  much  the 
same  spirit  of  untempered  zeal  as  that  in  which  the 
Israelites  of  old  destroyed  the  idols  of  Canaan.     The 


156 


THE  DAWN  OF  MP:DIiEVAL  EUR(JPE 


Saxons  pretended  submission  and  gave  hostages,  and  the 
Frankish  army  withdrew. 

In  the  following  year,  while  Charles  was  in  Italy, 
they  had   their   revenge.     Crossing   the   frontier  they 
burnt  the  Church    of   Deventer,    while    another   band 
raided  the  Hessian  villages  and  set  fire  to  the  Church 
of  St.  Boniface  at  Fritzlar,  but,  by  what  was  thought 
to  be  miraculous  intervention,  the  flames  went  out.     On 
Charles'  return  the  raiders  retreated,  followed  by  some 
Frankish  cavalry  who  did  considerable  damage. 
774-775       In  the  following  spring  Charles  prepared  for  revenge, 
and   formulated  the  policy  of  offering  the  Saxons  the 
alternative   of   death    or   baptism.     He    marched   into 
Saxony,  seized  and  fortified  the  strong  positions  of  Sigi- 
burg  and  Eresburg— the  first  beginning  of  the  network 
of  forts  that  he  gradually  constructed  throughout  Saxony 
—and  received  the  usual  submission  of  the  Ostfali  and 
Angrarii,  both  of  whom  agreed,  if  Charles  would  waive 
the  condition  of  forcible  conversion,  to  admit  Christian 
missionaries  into  their  lands.     He  then  turned  on  the 
Westfali,  who  had  made  an  attack  on  his  camp,  and 
compelled  them  also  to  submit. 

In  the  following  year  Charles  was  called  away  by  a 
crisis  in  Italy,  and  the  Saxons  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  to  break  into  revolt,  and  besieged  the 
garrisons  of  Sigiburg  and  Eresburg.  Charles  hastened 
home,  gathered  a  great  army  at  Worms,  and  marched 
into  Saxony,  only  to  be  met  with  the  usual  offers  of 
surrender.  He  took  fresh  hostages,  organised  a  more 
systematic  mission,  under  orfe  Sturm  of  Fulda,  and 
built  a  palace  and  church  at  Paderborn. 


THE  SAXON  WARS 


157 


The  leader  of  the  rising,  a  Westfalian  chieftain  named  Widukind, 
Widukind  (or  Witikind)  fled  to  Denmark,  and  in  778  ^"^^'^^^ 
he  returned  and  roused  the  Saxons  to  fresh  rebellion. 
They  broke  into  Hesse,  ravaging  and  slaughtering,  and 
even  reached  Cologne,  where  they  burned  the  Church 
of  St.  Martin.  The  season  was  too  far  advanced  for  a 
Frankish  campaign  that  year,  but  in  June,  779,  Charles 
once  more  led  a  great  army  into  Saxony  and  after  one 
pitched  battle  reduced  the  Westfali  to  submission.  The 
king  now  built  a  number  of  forts  connected  with  roads, 
reaching  as  far  as  the  Elbe,  which  now  formed  the 
eastern  frontier  of  the  Frankish  kingdom.  He  tried 
to  secure  the  allegiance  of  the  tribal  chiefs  by  giving 
them  Frank  titles  and  large  endowments.  He  also  en- 
deavoured to  force  Christianity  on  the  Saxons  by  rigorous 
laws,  and  this  appears  to  have  been  the  cause  of  the  re- 
bellion that  broke  out  as  soon  as  he  had  withdrawn. 
Widukind  was  again  the  soul  of  the  movement,  from 
which  the  local  chiefs  seem  to  have  held  off.  Many  of 
them,  as  hostages,  had  lived  in  Francia,  and  had  pro- 
bably become  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  incorporation  in 
the  dominions  of  Charles ;  and  they  were  also  jealous, 
apparently,  of  the  power  of  Widukind  over  the  people. 
It  was  this  inability  to  cooperate  that  was  fatal  to  all  the 
Saxon  risings.  In  many  ways  the  Saxons,  in  their  re- 
lation with  the  Franks,  remind  us  of  the  Highland  clans 
in  Scotland  in  their  relations  with  the  Scottish  kings  of 
the  Lowlands. 

This  rebellion  of  780  was  perhaps  the  most  fierce  of    780 
all.     Widukind  even  invited  the  help  of  the  Slavs  from 
beyond  the  Elbe,  and  the  Christian  Saxons  were  treated 


>     i 

,1 


f^ 


1*1 


158 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


with  merciless  cruelty.      The  arrival  of  Charles  on  the 
scene  led  to  the  usual  scattering  of  the  rebels,  but  when 
he  put  four  thousand  five  hundred  Saxons  to  the  sword 
at  Verden  for  complicity  in  the  rising,  a  general  out- 
break followed,  and  for  three  years  he  was  obliged  to 
wage  strenuous  war,  first  defeating  the  enemy  in  the 
open  field,  and  then  systematically  burning  the  villages 
and  devastating  the  country.     So  sternly  was  the  work 
done  that  it  seemed  as  though  the  spirit  of  resistance 
was  finally  broken,  and  even  Widukind  abandoned  the 
contest  and  submitted  to  baptism  at  Attigni,  after  which 
we  hear  no  more  of  him  in  the  history  of  the  time. 
793        A  few  years  of  peace  followed,  and  then  rebeUion 
blazed  up  again.     It  began  with  the  destruction  of  some 
Frankish  troops  who  had  been  sent  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Elbe  in  792;    and  in  the  following  year    Count 
Theodoric,  one  of  Charles'  best  generals,  was  slain  and 
his  army  destroyed  near  Eustringen.     This  disaster,  the 
worst  that  had  yet  befallen  the  royal  cause  in  Saxony, 
was  followed  by  a  general  repudiation  of  Christianity. 
*'  As  a  dog  returns  to  his  vomit,  so  did    they  return 
to  the  paganism  which  they  had  aforetime  deserted." 
'^  They  laid  waste  the  churches  that  were  within  their 
border  with  fire  and  sword ;  they  rejected  the  bishops 
and  priests  that  were  set  over  them ;  some  they  took 
prisoners  and  others  they  slew." 

Charles,  who  was  busy  with  his  Avar  campaign, 
conceived '  the  idea  of  digging  a  canal  between  the 
Eezat  and  the  Altmuhl,  by  which  he  could  transport 
his  soldiers  northwards  or  eastwards,  as  occasion  required. 
But  after  a  multitude  of  men  had  toiled  at  the  task  for 


THE  SAXON  WARS 


159 


months,  the  swampy  nature  of  the  ground  defeated  the 
enterprise.  From  794  to  799  each  year  had  its  Saxon 
campaign.  Charles  now  carried  out  a  new  policy  of 
transplanting  large  bodies  of  Saxons  into  Francia  and 
filling  their  vacant  lands  with  Franks,  or,  in  the  case 
of  Holstein,  with  Slavs.  He  also  carried  a  number  of 
Saxon  youths  to  Francia,  and  had  them  brought  up 
there  as  ecclesiastics,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to  send 
missionaries  of  the  Saxon  race  to  evangelise  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  After  803  the  long  record  of  Saxon  ris- 
ings ceases,  and  Charles  was  able  gradually  to  modify 
the  strictness  of  his  rule.  The  three  great  Sees  of 
Osnabruck,  Bremen  and  Verden  became  centres  of  mis- 
sionary activity,  and  the  Saxons,  now  incorporated  in  the 
Empire,  guarded  the  eastern  frontiers  against  the  Sla- 
vonic tribes  beyond.  A  hundred  years  later  a  Saxon 
duke  was  destined  to  supplant  the  Carolingian  house 
in  East  Francia,  and  to  found  a  new  dynasty  of  German 
sovereigns. 


803 


The 

Spanish 
campaign 

778 


CHAPTEE  XVII 

CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799 

'T^HE  story  of  the  Saxon  wars  has  carried  us  down  to 
-*-      nearly  the  end  of  Charles'  reign.     We  must  now 
return  to  the  earher  years  of  it  and  take  up  the  thread 
of  general  history.     For  some  time  after  his  conquest 
of  the  Lombard  kingdom,  the  affairs  of  Italy  gave  the 
king  some  anxiety.     Hadrian  was  tactless  and  some- 
what grasping  in  his  claims  on  the  neighbouring  dukes 
in  Italy,  and  something  like  a  general  conspiracy  against 
pope  and  king  appears  to  have  been  hatched  in  775, 
Hrodgaud,  Duke  of  Friuli,  the  Duke  of  Beneventum  and 
the  Emperor  Constantine  being  all  involved.     But  the 
Emperor  died,  the  Duke  of  Beneventum  hung  back, 
and  Hrodgaud  was  left  to  face  the    Frankish  power 
alone.     The  course  of  events  that  followed  is  somewhat 
obscure.     Apparently  Charles  descended  on  Northern 
Italy  early  in  776,  slew  the  revolting  duke,  dispersed 
his  followers,  and  so  reduced  Lombardy  once  more  to 
subjection.     The  supporters  of  Hrodgaud  were  punished 
by  the  confiscation  of  their  property. 

Scarcely  had  this  Italian  issue  been  laid  to  rest  for 

a  time  when  an  entirely  new  direction  was  given  to 

'  Charles'  policy  by  a  visit  from  three  rebeUious  Saracen 

160 


CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799       161 

chiefs  from  Spain,  who  came  to  him  at  Paderborn  to 
ask  for  his  assistance  against  their  overlord. 

In  750  the  Ommeyad  dynasty  at  Damascus  had  been 
overthrown  by  the  rival  faction  of  the  Abbassides,  and 
Abdurrahman,  the  only  survivor  of  the  family  of  the  dis- 
possessed caliphs,  fled  to  North  Africa,  and  a  few  years 
later  crossed  into  Spain,  where  a  series  of  victories  made 
him  master  of  the  country  that  had  been  under  the  rule 
of  several  mutually  hostile  chiefs.    At  Cordova  he  estab- 
lished   the    capital    of    a    Moslem    kingdom    that    was 
destined  to  last  for  nearly  three  centuries  and  to  leave 
an  indelible  stamp  on  the  history  of  Spain.    It  was  on  be- 
half of  the  Abbasside  party  that  Charles  was  now  invited 
to  intervene,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the 
religious   motive   counted    for   much   in   his    decision. 
Perhaps  Charles  cherished  some  hope  of  adding  Spain, 
or  at  least  part  of  it,  to  his  dominions — perhaps  he  was 
led  on  by  the  mere  love  of  adventure.     Whatever  the 
motive,  he  agreed  to  march  into  Spain,  the  Abbasside 
chiefs  undertaking  to  raise  forces  from  Africa  and  in 
Spain  to  assist  him — an  undertaking  that  they  failed  to 
carry  out.     With  a  great  army  of  Franks,  Lombards, 
Bavarians  and  men  of  the  southern  provinces  Charles 
set  out  in  the  spring  of  778  for  Saragossa.     It  is  with 
some  surprise  that  we   find   him,  on  the  way,  laying 
siege   to   Pampeluna,    a   city    belonging   to   the   little 
Christian  kingdom  of  the  Asturias,  of  which  he  de- 
molished the  walls.     This  was  the  only  success  of  the 
expedition,  of  the  details  of  which  the  chroniclers  are 
strangely  silent.    All  that  is  clear  is  that  Charles  turned 

homeward,  taking   one  of   the  rebel  chiefs   with  him 
11 


I 


f^ 


Tassilo  of 
Bavaria 


162  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

in  chains,  and  that  on  the  way  through  the  defile  of 
Koncesvalles  his  rearguard  was  attacked  by  the  wild 
Basques  of  the  Pyrenees,  and  a  number  of  his  nobles, 
including  Koland,  the  Count  of  the  Breton  March,  were 
slain.  Around  this  event  later  ages  wove  a  tissue  of 
romance,  of  which  we  shall  say  something  in  a  later 
chapter.  The  campaign  is  notable  as  the  only  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  of  Charles  to  extend  the  frontiers  of  his 
kingdom.  It  was  left  for  his  son  and  successor  to 
retrieve  his  father's  failure,  and  carry  the  frontiers  of 
the  Spanish  March  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Ebro. 

After  staying  a  few  weeks  in  Aquetaine,  possibly  to 
avert  the  danger  of  a  rising  there,  Charles  led  his  army ^ 
back  to  Francia,  and  once  more  turned  his  attention  to 

Italian  affairs. 

These  now  become  entangled  with  the  fortunes  and 
misfortunes  of  Tassilo  of  Bavaria.     We  have  already 
seen  him  as  the  rebelHous  vassal  of  his  uncle  King  Pippm 
and  as  the  ally  of  Charles  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign. 
The  fortunes  of  Bavaria  were  naturally  closely  connected 
with  those  of  Lombardy,  from  which  it  was  only  separ- 
ated by  the  rampart  of  the  Alps.     Tassilo  had  married  a 
daughter  of  the  deposed  Lombard  king,  and  her  influence 
would  naturally  be  exercised  to  sow  dissension  between 
her  husband  and  the  king  of  the  Franks.     But  behind 
all  merely  personal  questions  lay  the  deep-seated  an- 
tagonism between  the  Germans  of  the  north  and  the 
Germans  of  the  south— an  antagonism  lasting  far  into 
the  Middle  Ages— if  indeed  it  can  be  said  to  have  even 
now  entirely  disappeared.     There  are  some  provinces  of 
Europe  that  seem  to  have  a  natural  claim  to  an  mde- 


CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799       163 


pendent  life,  and  yet  that  have  always  found  that  in- 
dependence menaced  by  the  expansion  of  more  powerful 
neighbours.  Burgundy  and  Aquetaine  failed  to  make 
good  their  claim  to  a  national  life  of  their  own  ;  Bavaria, 
more  fortunate  in  the  end,  only  succeeded  by  centuries 
of  contest  in  avoiding  the  danger  of  absorption  in  the 
German  kingdom  of  the  north. 

But  though  Charles  might  suspect  Tassilo  of  plotting 
fresh  treason,  he  could  not  treat  a  Christian  power, 
ruled  by  his  own  first  cousin,  as  he  treated  heathen 
Saxony  or  rebellious  Lombardy. 

His  first  task  was  to  win  the  Pope  to  the  support  of 
his  cause,  and  for  that  purpose  he  visited  Kome  in  781, 
taking  with  him  his  wife  and  two  of  his  children.  Carlo- 
man  and  Louis.  Carloman  was  baptised  by  the  Pope  and 
his  name  changed  to  Pippin  ;  and  the  two  boys  were 
then  anointed  as  Kings  of  Italy  and  Aquetaine.  Charles 
may  have  thought  that  he  could  satisfy  the  local 
patriotism  of  these  two  recently  annexed  parts  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  by  this  recognition  of  their  local 
independence,  and  probably  hoped  that  as  the  boys 
grew  up  they  might  relieve  him  of  the  details  of  ad- 
ministration in  these  southern  provinces. 

The  problem  of  Bavaria  was  discussed  by  the  king 
and  the  Pope,  and  Hadrian,  whose  friendship  for 
Charles  had  been  somewhat  cooled  by  what  he  re- 
garded as  inadequate  support  in  his  claims  against  the 
Archbishop  of  Ravenna  and  the  southern  dukes,  now 
agreed  to  join  the  king  in  sending  an  embassy  to  Tassilo 
to  require  him  to  remember  his  oath  of  allegiance. 
Tassilo  could  not  afford  to  quarrel  with  the  Church 


i  I 


!  I 


■  I  I 


Fall  of 
Tassilo, 
787,  788 


|i! 


164 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


illi 


authorities,  on  whose  support  his  power  in  Bavaria 
depended,  and  accordingly  ''so  greatly  was  his  heart 
softened  that  he  declared  his  willingness  to  proceed  to 
the  presence  of  the  king,  if  such  hostages  could  be 
given  as  would  leave  him  no  doubt  of  his  safety ". 
These  being  furnished,  the  Bavarian  duke  repaired  to 
Worms,  and  there  solemnly  renewed  his  oath  of  allegi- 
ance and  gave  hostages  for  his  obedience. 

Six  years  passed  before  the  affairs  of  Bavaria  again 
became  a  cause  of  anxiety  to  Charles.  The  only  event 
of  importance  in  these  years,  in  Italy,  was  the  sub- 
mission of  Arichis,  the  great  Duke  of  Beneventum,  to 
the  Frankish  king.  In  787  Charles  again  visited  Eome, 
and  the  matter  of  Tassilo's  loyalty  was  once  more  dis- 
cussed between  the  king  and  the  Pope.  What  new 
ground  for  suspicion  Tassilo  had  given  we  do  not  know, 
but  something  in  the  attitude  of  the  duke  alienated  the 
sympathy  of  the  Pope,  who,  after  a  last  attempt  at 
reconciliation,  left  Charles  a  free  hand  to  deal  with  his 
recalcitrant  vassal.  From  all  sides  Charles  poured 
Frankish  armies  into  Bavaria,  and  Tassilo,  finding 
resistance  hopeless,  made  submission,  handing  over  to 
the  king,  in  token  of  his  surrender,  '*  a  wand,  the 
top  of  which  was  carved  into  the  likeness  of  a  man  " 

an  early  indication  of   the   growth  of   the   idea  of 

homage. 

But  within  a  year  Charles  believed  that  Tassilo  was 
renewing  his  schemes  of  rebellion,  and  he  was  summoned 
to  Ingelheim,  where  he  was  placed  on  trial  before  the 
assembled  magnates  of  the  "  Franks,  Bavarians,  Lom- 
bards and  Saxons,"  and  adjudged  guilty  of  treason,  the 


i| 


CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799       165 

gravest  charge  against  him  being  that  he  had  invited  the 
Avars  to  invade  the  kingdom. 

With  all  his  family  he  was  condemned  to  enter  the 
monastic  life,  and  he  disappears  into  the  monastery  of 
Jumieges,  to  reappear  for  the  last  time  at  Frankfort  in 
794,  when  at  the  great  council  he  made  a  final  declara- 
tion of  his  repentance  and  renounced  all  claims  on  his 
Bavarian  inheritance.  Bavaria  now  passed  under  the 
direct  rule  of  the  Frankish  king. 

The  annexation  of  Bavaria  brought  the  kingdom  of  The  Avars 
Charles  to  the  borders  of  the  old  Eoman  province  of 
Pannonia,  which  was  now  occupied  by  the  Avars.  We 
have  seen  already  how  this  tribe  from  Central  Asia 
disturbed  the  Byzantine  emperors  and  even  attacked 
Constantinople  itself.  Since  then  they  had  settled  in 
Pannonia,  where  they  occupied  themselves  with  agri- 
culture and  raids  on  the  western  provinces  of  Europe. 
The  Bavarian  dukes  had  been  the  defenders  of  the 
frontier  against  these  heathen  marauders  and  Charles 
now  took  up  the  duty.  A  raid  made  by  the  Avars  in 
788,  which  was  checked  by  the  Count  of  the  Marches, 
gave  him  an  excuse  for  organising  a  great  crusade 
against  them. 

The  various  tribes  of  the  Avars  lived  in  fortified  kraals 
or  "  rings,"  the  largest  of  them  being  that  of  the  Chagan 
or  head  chief,  west  of  the  Raab.  Here,  protected  by 
nine  concentric  ramparts,  '*as  wide  across  as  from 
Zurich  to  Constance,"  the  accumulated  treasures  of  two 
centuries  of  plundering  were  stored. 

After  some  ineffective  attempts  at  negotiation,  prob- 
ably undertaken  merely  to  gain  time  for  military  pre- 


m- 


i 


I 


166 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


parations,  Charles  led  his  army  against  the  Avars.    The 
ground  on  which  the  Frankish  magnates  agreed  to  the 
expedition  was  "  the  great  and  intolerable  malice  which 
the  Avars  had  shown  towards  the  Holy  Church  and  the 
791    Christian  people  ".     The  campaign,  started  in  791,  was 
undertaken   in  something  of  the  spirit  of  a  crusade, 
opening  with  three  days  of  fasting  and  litanies.     The 
Frankish  army  marched  along  both  banks  of  the  Danube, 
the  commissariat  being  conveyed   down    the   nver  m 
boats.     The  expedition  was  little  more  than  a  mihtary 
parade.   The  Avars,  who  were  divided  among  themselves, 
made  no  resistance,  though  Charles  penetrated  as  far  as 
the  Eaab,  returning  to  Katisbon  in  time  for  Christmas. 
This  was  the  only  campaign  against  the  Avars  led  by 
Charles  in  person.    The  conduct  of  the  war  fell  to  Eric, 
795    Duke  of  Friuh,  a  devout  and  noble  soldier,  who  in  795 
penetrated  to  the  central  fortress  of  the  Chagan,  took 
possession  of  the  vast  stores  of  treasure  hoarded  in  this 
stronghold,  and  sent   them   to    Charles  at   Aachen  in 
fifteen  great  waggons.     The  king  gave  rich  gifts  to  his 
nobles  and  sent  presents  to  the  Pope  and  others,  includ- 
ing Offa,  king  of  Mercia,  who  received  *' a  baldric,  a 
Hunnish  sword  and  two  silk  cloaks  ".    In  the  following 
year  Pippin,  king  of  Italy,  completed  the  destruction  of 
the  Avar  kingdom  and   drove    the  Avars  beyond   the 
Theiss.    A  desultory  war  went  on  along  the  frontier  for 
some  years,  partly  against  the  remnants  of  the  Avars 
and  partly  against  Slavonic    tribes  that  pressed  in  to 
settle  in  the  vacant  lands.     In  799  the  vaHant  Gerold, 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  brother  of  Charles'  wife  Hildegarde, 
fell  in  contest  with  some  Avars,  and  in  the  same  year 


I 


CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799       167 

the  heroic  Eric  of  Friuli  died,  slain  in  an  ambush  laid  by 
the  Croatians.  Paulinus,  Bishop  of  Aquileia,  who  had 
dedicated  to  him  a  book  of  devotional  meditations  some 
years  before,  now  wrote  a  dirge  for  his  friend  modelled 
on  David's  lament  over  Saul. 

The  remnants  of  the  Avar  people  accepted  Chris- 
tianity, and  settled  in  the  Ostmark,  and  Slav  tribes  filled 
the  vacant  province  of  the  middle  Danube,  till  a  fresh 
inroad  of  Turanian  people  from  beyond  the  confines 
of  Europe — the  Magyars — reoccupied  the  lands  from 
which  Huns  and  Avars  had  been  successively  driven. 

While  these  wars  were  going  on  Charles  was  oc- Domestic 
cupied  with  the  internal  affairs  of  his  kingdom.  In  the 
year  788  he  lost  his  wife  Hildegarde  and  his  mother 
Bertha.  A  few  months  after,  he  married  Fastrada, 
the  daughter  of  an  Austrasian  count,  a  woman  of  strong 
but  apparently  harsh  and  vindictive  character.  To  her 
influence  Einhard  attributes  not  a  few  of  Charles'  un- 
popular acts  during  this  period  of  his  reign.  An  obscure 
revolt  of  the  Thuringian  nobles  in  886  is  said  to  have 
been  due  to  her  actions ;  and  just  after  the  first  Avar 
campaign  Charles  had  to  meet  a  more  serious  conspiracy, 
in  which  the  leading  part  was  played  by  Pippin  the 
Hunchback,  Charles'  son  by  an  early  irregular  marriage. 
The  plot  was  betrayed  and  the  leaders  arrested  and  con- 
demned to  death.  Pippin  was  allowed  to  enter  the 
monastery  of  Prum,  where  he  disappears  from  history. 
Two  years  later  Fastrada  died,  and  Charles  married,  as 
his  fourth  wife,  Liutgarda  of  Suabia. 

The  year  798  was  one  of  disturbance  in  the  kingdom. 
The  Avar  war  was  still  going  on  and  the  Saxons  were, 


168 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Charles 
and  Oifa 


as  usual,  turbulent.  In  addition  to  this  the  Saracens 
broke  into  Septimania,  which  they  ravaged,  carrying  off 
many  of  the  inhabitants  into  slavery ;  and  Grimwald, 
Duke  of  Beneventum,  whom  Charles  had  held  as  a 
hostage  during  his  father's  hfetime,  but  had  allowed  to 
return  to  the  duchy  after  his  death,  threw  off  his  allegi- 
ance and  became  the  centre  of  the  anti-Frankish  party 
in  Italy. 

A  few  years  before  this,  a  quarrel  between  Charles 
and  the  Empire  led  to  an  invasion  of  Southern  Italy  by 
the  "  Greeks,"  who  were  met  by  a  combined  Frankish 
and  Lombard  force  under  the  Dukes  of  Spoleto  and 
Beneventum  and  completely  defeated.  But  after  this 
the  young  Duke  of  Beneventum  grew  more  restive  under 
the  Frankish  yoke,  and  in  791  Pippin  and  Louis  were 
ordered  by  their  father  to  invade  the  duchy.  Beyond 
devastating  part  of  the  territory  they  do  not  appear  to 
have  achieved  much  success.  The  contest  with  Bene- 
ventum lingered  on  for  years,  resolving  itself  into  a  duel 
between  Pippin,  king  of  Italy,  assisted  by  the  Duke  of 
Spoleto,  and  Grimwald.  Finally  the  death  of  Grim- 
wald, in  806,  led  to  the  secession  of  hostilities. 

To  make  the  account  of  these  years  complete,  some- 
thing must  be  said  about  Charles'  relations  with  Offa, 
king  of  Mercia,  now  overlord  of  the  greater  part  of 
England.  The  two  kings  appear  to  have  become  ac- 
quainted in  connection  with  Offa's  scheme  for  an 
Archbishopric  of  Lichfield,  and  they  carried  on  a  cor- 
respondence for  some  years.  Offa  is  even  said  to  have 
invited  Charles  to  join  him,  in  787,  in  deposing  Hadrian 
from  the  Papal  chair.    A  little  later  a  quarrel  broke  out 


11(1 


CHARLES,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS,  773-799       169 


between  the  two  kings,  in  connection  with  a  proposed 
marriage  of  Offa's  daughter  with  Charles'  eldest  son 
and  namesake.  For  some  reason,  a  suggestion  by  Offa 
that  Charles'  daughter  Bertha  should  marry  his  son 
aroused  the  Frankish  king's  resentment.  For  some 
time  the  relations  between  the  two  kings  were  strained, 
and  an  embargo  was  laid  by  Charles  on  English 
merchants  travelling  through  his  kingdom.  But  the 
influence  of  Alcuin  was  exercised  in  favour  of  peace,  and 
in  795  Charles  writes  in  the  friendliest  terms  to  his 
''beloved  friend  and  brother  Offa  "  :— 

"  As  for  pilgrims,  who  wish  to  approach  the  threshold 
of  the  apostles,  let  them  travel  in  peace  without  any 
molestation.  Let  merchants  pay  toll.at  the  accustomed 
places ;  we  take  them  under  our  protection.  If  they 
have  any  complaints,  let  them  come  to  us  or  to  our 
judges,  and  they  shall  have  justice.  We  send  herewith 
some  dalmatics  and  palls  from  our  store  to  your  bishops' 
sees,  and  to  those  of  Ethelfrid,  begging  that  you  will 
have  intercession  made  for  the  soul  of  Pope  Hadrian ; 
also  we  send  you  a  baldric,  a  Hunnish  sword  and  two 
silk  cloaks." 

Offa  died  soon  after  this,  and  Charles'  further  relations 
with  England  belong  to  a  later  period. 

Charles'  ecclesiastical  policy,  during  the  pontificate  of  Ecciesiasti- 
Hadrian,  turns  almost  entirely  around  two  controversies.  " 
The  first  of  these  was  the  so-called  Adoptionist  heresy. 
This  was  propounded  by  a  Spanish  monk,  Felix,  Bishop 
of  Urgel,  who  taught  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  man  who 
was  adopted  by  God  as  His  Son.  Having  obtained  from 
the  Pope  a  condemnation  of  this  doctrine,  Charles  held 


■ 


cal  affairs 


I> 


* 


(.,1 


l^i 


170 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


a  series  of  councils  for  its  condemnation,  Alcuin  being 
specially  the  champion  of  orthodoxy. 

The  other  was  the  Iconoclastic  controversy,  in  regard 
to  which  it  was  necessary  for  the  Frankish  Chm-ch  to 
define  its  position.  At  the  second  Council  of  Nicaea 
Irene  had  secured  the  restoration  of  image-worship, 
and  thus  brought  the  policy  of  the  Empire  into  accord 
with  that  of  the  Pope.  But  Charles  was  not  disposed 
to  submit  to  the  dictation  of  the  Eastern  Court,  and  in 
790  he  caused  to  be  drawn  up  an  elaborate  refutation 
of  image-worship— the  celebrated  Lihri  Garolini.  His 
attitude  towards  the  whole  question  was  one  of  tolera- 
tion. ''  Let  pictures  be  in  the  churches  if  so  desired,  to 
preserve  in  the  minds  of  the  people  the  memory  of  Bible 
stories ;  but  their  presence  there  should  be  optional,  not 
compulsory,  and  as  to  insisting  on  their  being  worshipped, 
as  the  impertinent  and  arrogant  council  at  Bithynia 
had  lately  done,  that  could  in  nowise  be  tolerated." 

In  794  Charles  called  a  council  of  Frankish  bishops 
at  Frankfort,  when  the  seventh  Ecumenical  Council 
was  formally  condemned  as  ''  neither  seventh  nor  ecu- 
menical, but  absolutely  superfluous  ".  Charles  also  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  Pope,  inviting  him  to  join  in  the 
condemnation  of  the  image- worshippers.  Hadrian  sent 
a  long  reply,  pointing  out  what  he  regarded  as  the  errors 
of  Charles'  position,  and  winding  up  with  the  usual  ap- 
peal for  the  restoration  of  the  ''Patrimonies  of  St. 
Peter  "  in  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily.  Shortly  after  this 
Hadrian  died,  and  with  the  appointment  of  his  successor 
begins  the  course  of  events  that  led  to  the  coronation 
of  Charles  as  Eoman  Emperor  five  years  later. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


CAROLUS  IMPERATOR 


170 R  thirty  years  Charles  had  reigned  as  king  of  the 
Franks,  and  during  this  period  he  had  extended 
the  frontiers  of  his  kingdom  in  all  directions  till  it  in- 
cluded, excepting  Spain  and  Britain,  all,  and  more  than 
all,  the  European  lands  that  had  owned  the  sway  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  But  the  Empire  still  lived  on  in  its 
new  capital  in  the  East,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
that  Charles  ever  contemplated,  during  the  first  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  reign,  the  idea  of  superseding  the  some- 
what shadowy  authority  that  the  Byzantine  rulers 
exercised  over  Italy.  But,  inevitably,  his  relations 
with  the  ecclesiastical  world  drew  him  more  and  more 
into  the  position  of  protector  of  the  Pope,  especially  as 
the  Iconoclastic  controversy  had  practically  severed  what- 
ever bonds  of  allegiance  bound  the  Popes  to  the  Isaurian 
Emperors. 

Yet  the  anomalous  condition  of  Europe  might  have 
lasted  on  for  much  longer  had  not  Irene's  rise  to  power 
destroyed  whatever  respect  had  been  felt  in  the  west 
for  the  Imperial  house.  Europe  was,  for  the  first  time, 
without  an  emperor,  and  just  at  this  moment  a  series  of 
events  happened  that  made  an  emperor  specially  neces- 
sary. 

171 


I 


( 


f 


M 


Leo  III., 

795-816 


II 


172 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


At  the  end  of  the  year  795  Hadrian  died,  and  Leo 
III.  was  elected  in  his  place.  The  new  Pope  was  ap- 
parently the  nominee  of  a  party,  and  there  is  some 
reason  to  think  that  rumours  unfavourable  to  his  in- 
tegrity and  moral  conduct  had  reached  Charles.  At  all 
events,  in  signifying  his  assent  to  the  appointment,  the 
king  lays  stress  on  the  importance  to  a  Pope  of  purity  of 
life  and  honourable  conduct.  He  pictures  the  relation 
between  the  Pope  and  himself  as  like  that  between 
Moses  praying  on  the  mountain  and  Joshua  smiting  the 
enemies  of  the  Lord  in  the  valley  below.  *'  It  is  ours, 
with  the  help  of  the  Divine  piety,  externally  to  defend 
the  Holy  Church  of  Christ  by  our  arms  from  all  pagan 
inroads  and  infidel  devastations,  and  internally  to  fortify 
it  by  the  recognition  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  yours, 
holy  Father,  with  hands  raised  to  God  like  Moses,  to 
help  our  warfare ;  that  by  your  intercession  the  Chris- 
tian people  may  everywhere  have  the  victory  over  its 
enemies,  and  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may 
be  magnified  throughout  the  whole  world." 

From  the  first,  difficulties  gathered  round  the  path  of 
the  new  Pope.  Two  of  the  nephews  of  the  late  Pope, 
PaschaHs  and  Campulus,  took  the  lead  in  opposing  his 
authority.*  But  four  years  passed  before  the  conspirators 
felt  strong  enough  to  act,  and  then,  having  spread 
scandalous  reports  against  the  character  of  the  Pope, 
they  proceeded  to  seize  him,  in  April,  799,  as  he  was 
riding  through  the  streets  of  Kome.  Their  purpose  was 
to  adopt  the  barbarous  Byzantine  custom  of  Winding 
their  captive  and  cutting  out  his  tongue,  but  for  some 
reason  the  brutal  work  was  only  half  done,  and  Leo  was 


m 


n 


I 


f 


174  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 

rescued  by  some  friends  and  taken  to  St.  Peter's  Church, 
outside  the  walls,  whence  he  was  conducted  into  safety 
by  the  Duke  of  Spoleto. 

Having  driven  out  the  Pope  the  conspirators  appear 
to  have  had  no  further  plans.  They  did  not  set  up  an 
antipope  or  organise  any  sort  of  government  in  Rome. 

The  events  that  had  happened  were  reported  to 
Charles,  then  engaged  in  one  of  his  Saxon  campaigns. 
He  instructed  his  heutenants  to  send  the  Pope  to  Pader- 
born.  Thither  accordingly  Leo  repaired,  accompanied  by 
a  great  train  of  nobles  and  ecclesiastics.  He  was  accorded 
a  respectful  welcome,  and  requested  to  consecrate  the 
new  church  at  Paderborn.  He  stayed  at  the  Frankish 
Court  for  some  months,  and  then  returned  to  Eome,  ac- 
companied by  a  number  of  leading  Frankish  ecclesiastics 
and  counts.  These  companions  of  his  journey  consti- 
tuted the  body  of  commissioners  appointed  by  Charles 
to  hear  the  accusations  against  Leo  and  give  judgment 
on  them.  But  where,  in  all  this,  do  the  rights  of  the 
nominal  overiord  of  the  Pope  find  recognition  ?  And  if 
the  Pope  felt  it  useless  to  turn  to  the  Byzantine  ruler 
for  protection  and  vindication,  did  not  that  fact  in  itself 
imply  that  Rome  was  free  to  beget  a  new  Emperor  as 
she  had  begotten  the  Augustus  of  eight  hundred  years 

before  ? 

Leo's  return  to  Rome  was  a  great  contrast  to  his  de- 
parture a  few  months  before.  The  Romans,  anxious 
to  avert  the  possible  vengeance  of  Charles,  or  perhaps 
influenced  by  a  genuine  revulsion  of  feeling,  poured 
out  to  welcome  the  returning  Pope,  who  entered  the 
city  amid .  tumultuous  signs  of  rejoicing.      The  com- 


CAROLUS  IMPERATOR 


175 


I 


missioners  summoned  Paschalis  and  Campulus  before 
them,  adjudged  their  accusations  as  groundless,  and  sent 
them  to  Francia  for  Charles  to  deal  with. 

In  the  months  that  elapsed  before  Charles  was  free 
to  visit  Rome  again  an  interesting  and  significant  inci- 
dent occurred  in  the  arrival  of  an  embassy  from  the 
Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  bringing  relics  and  gifts  to  the 
Frankish  king.  A  little  later  a  second  envoy  brought 
to  Charles  the  banner  of  Jerusalem  and  the  keys  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre. 

It  would  appear  as  though  the  Christians  now  living 
under  Moslem  rule  in  the  East,  despairing  of  help  from 
Constantinople,  were  turning  to  the  great  Western 
power  as  the  champion  of  the  cause  of  Christendom. 

Early  in  the  year  800  Charies  set  out  for  Rome,  stop- charies* 
ping  on  the  way  to  visit  the  great  Abbey  of  St.  Martin  at  S^L^I'soo 
Tours,  where  Alcuin  was  now  installed  as  abbot.  It 
was  his  first  visit  to  Neustria  for  more  than  twenty  years. 
His  stay  at  Tours  was  prolonged  and  saddened  by  the 
death  of  his  wife  Liutgarda.  After  leaving  Tours  he 
travelled  to  Paris,  Aachen  and  Mainz,  and  then,  in  the 
autumn,  moved  south  with  a  considerable  army  and 
crossed  the  Alps,  arriving  at  the  end  of  November  at 
Rome,  where  he  was  welcomed  with  much  ceremony. 
His  earliest  task  was  to  lay  finally  to  rest  the  charges 
that  had  been  made  against  Leo,  and  at  a  great  assembly 
of  the  Roman  Church  dignitaries  a  last  opportunity  was 
given  for  any  who  wished  to  accuse  the  Pope.  No  ac- 
cusers being  forthcoming,  Leo  solemnly  purged  himself 
on  oath  of  all  the  charges  that  had  been  made  by  his 
enemies. 


1 


176 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Two  days  later,  on  Christmas  Day,  800,  during  the 
mass  at  St.  Peter's,  which  was  attended  by  the  king 
and  his  Frankish  nobles,  the  Pope  suddenly  produced  a 
golden  crown  which  he  placed  on  the  head  of  Charles, 
while  the  whole  assembled  congregation  joined  in  the 
shout,  **  To  Charles  Augustus,  crowned  of  God,  the 
great  and  pacific  Emperor,  long  Hfe  and  victory". 
Charles  was  then  invested  with  the  Imperial  insignia 
and  a  solemn  litany  sung,  invoking  the  protection  of 
the  saints  on  the  new  Emperor. 

Such    a   ceremony    as    this    must   have    been    pre- 
arranged,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Pope 
would   have   conferred   the  Imperial   title   on  Charles 
without  first  ascertaining  that  he  would  approve.     Yet 
there   is  some   reason  for  thinking   that  Charles   was 
taken  by  surprise.     Einhard  says  that  he  afterwards  de- 
clared that  he  would  never  have  entered  the  church  on 
that  day  if  he  had  foreseen  the  Pope's  design.     This 
may  be  only  a  sigh  of  regret  from  one  who  found  that 
the  Imperial  dignity  had  brought  more  anxiety   than 
pleasure ;  but  it  may  mean  that,  though  the  idea  of  the 
Imperial   restoration    had    been    discussed,    the    Pope 
brought  the  matter  prematurely  to  an  issue. 
Thesignifi-      To    Charles'  Frankish  nobles  and  to  the  people  of 
imperili^^^  Eome  the  coronation  would  have  meant  Httle  more  than 
revival       ^^^   recognition   of   existing   facts.     For   all   practical 
purposes  Charles  had  already  succeeded  to  the  rights 
and   responsibihties   that   the   Byzantine   rulers  could 
no  longer  effectively  fulfil.     And  as,  fifty  years  before, 
Zacharias,  on  the  ground  that  he  who  exercised  the 
powers  of  king  should  have  the  name  of  king,  had  sanc- 


CAROLUS  IMPERATOR 


177 


i' 


tioned  the  setting  aside  of  the  last  Merovingian,  so 
now  it  seemed  good  that  he  who  exercised  Imperial 
functions  and  ruled  over  the  Imperial  cities  in  the 
west  should  have  the  title  of  Emperor. 

To  the  Pope  the  crowning  of  Charles  meant  the 
final  repudiation  of  the  authority  of  the  Emperor  at 
Constantinople.  Any  attempt  of  the  Eastern  Empire 
to  interfere  in  Italy  would  now  have  to  reckon  with  the 
power  of  Charles  and  his  Frankish  armies.  It  probably 
meant  little  more. 

In  after-ages  vast  claims  were  destined  to  grow  out 
of  the  Papal  share  in  this  restoration  of  the  Western 
Empire— claims  that  Leo  could  only  have  foreseen  very 
dimly,  if  indeed  he  foresaw  them  at  all. 

But  what  did  it  mean  to  Charles?  It  meant  the 
consecration  of  his  mission  as  the  guardian  and  pro- 
tector of  the  Christian  faith— the  ratification  of  the 
relationship  that  had  been  growing  up  through  centuries 
between  the  old  world  and  the  new.  As  Con- 
stantine  and  his  successors  had  ruled  the  Empire 
from  Constantinople,  so  now  a  new  line  of  emperors 
would  rule  it  from  Aachen.  Logically,  the  transfer 
of  the  Imperial  title  involved  the  denial  of  the  right 
of  the  Byzantine  rulers  to  it;  but  Charles  had  no 
wish  to  push  the  theory  to  this  logical  issue,  and  was 
prepared  to  admit  the  authority  of  the  existing  Imperial 
house  in  the  east  so  long  as  he  might  remain  un- 
challenged Emperor  in  the  west. 

The  Imperial  office,  in  his  conception  of  it,  involved 
a  definite  moral  responsibility.  No  Pope  interpreted 
his  office  as  vicegerent  of  God  more  strictly  than  did 

12 


178 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


of  802 


I 


the  new  Emperor.  The  spirit  in  which  he  tried  to  rule 
Capitulary  is  shown  by  the  Capitulary  of  802,  which  prescribed  a 
new  oath  on  all  his  subjects.  **  It  shall  be  pubhcly 
explained  to  all  what  is  the  force  and  meaning  of  this 
oath,  and  how  much  more  it  includes  than  a  mere 
promise  of  fidelity  to  the  monarch's  person.  Firstly,  it 
binds  those  who  swear  it  to  live,  each  and  every  one  of 
them,  according  to  his  strength  and  knowledge,  in  the 
holy  service  of  God ;  since  the  Lord  Emperor  cannot 
extend  over  all  his  care  and  discipUne.  Secondly,  it 
binds  them  neither  by  force  nor  fraud  to  seize  or  molest 
any  of  the  goods  or  servants  of  his  crown.  Thirdly,  to 
do  no  violence  nor  treason  towards  the  Holy  Church,  or 
to  widows  or  orphans  or  strangers,  seeing  that  the  Lord 
Emperor  has  been  appointed,  after  the  Lord  and  His 
saints,  the  protector  and  defender  of  all  such." 

It  was  in  the  ecclesiastical  authority  that  he  deemed 
himself  to  have  as  Eoman  Emperor  that  he  hoped  to 
find  the  bond  of  union  that  should  bind  together  all  the 
peoples  whom  the  might  of  the  Frankish  sword  had 
brought  under  his  sway.  Over  Franks,  Bavarians, 
Saxons,  Lombards,  the  Church  had  thrown  the  mesh- 
work  of  a  common  organisation.  This  organisation 
centred  in  Eome,  and  as  master  of  Rome  Charles  might 
hope  to  extend  his  authority  wherever  the  claims  of 
Rome  were  recognised. 

The  great  scheme  broke  down,  chiefly  because  old 
tribal  feelings  were  too  strong  and  the  new  bond  of  union 
too  weak.  But  the  coronation  of  Charles  the  Great  is 
not  only  the  beginning  of  an  experiment  that  failed,  it 
is  much  more  truly  the  culmination  of  a  process  that  had 


CAROLUS  IMPERATOR 


179 


brought  the  vigorous  and  turbulent  life  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  under  the  sway  of  those  conceptions  of  ordered 
rule  and  discipline  that  were  the  greatest  legacy  that 
the  old  Rome  of  Augustus  and  Antoninus  had  be- 
queathed to  the  newer  Rome  of  Gregory  and  Hadrian. 

From  Rome  Charles  returned  to  Germany  in  the 
following  year,  and  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  reign 
were  spent  in  organisation  and  legislation.  No  fresh 
lands  were  added  to  his  Empire,  but  the  existing  pro- 
vinces were  bound  into  closer  union. 

It  is  said  that  Charles  contemplated  a  marriage  with 
Irene,  so  uniting  East  and  West.  But  the  story  is 
extremely  improbable,  and  the  revolution  at  Con- 
stantinople, which  was  due  partly  to  the  revolt  of  the 
west,  soon  brought  Irene's  period  of  rule  to  an  end. 
From  the  new  Emperor  Charles  succeeded,  after  tedious 
negotiations,  in  securing  a  partial  recognition  of  his  title. 
The  most  important  events  of  804  were  the  end  of  the 
Saxon  war  and  a  visit  of  the  Pope  to  Aachen. 

To    Charles'    Court    came   messengers    from    many  Closing 
lands.     There  Egbert  of  Wessex  found  refuge  whencCw 
expelled    from    England    by    Bertric.     The   extent   of^'^ 
Charles'   interference   in    English   affairs   is   not   very 
clear,  but  he  probably  assisted  Egbert's  return  in  802, 
and  perhaps  inspired  the  policy  that  gave  to  Wessex 
twenty-five  years  later  the  overlordship  of  England.    In 
808  another  dispossessed  English  king,  Eardulf  of  North- 
umbria,  came  to  ask  for  help  at  the  Imperial  Court, 
and  by  the  joint  help  of  Emperor  and  Pope  was  restored 
to  his  throne. 

From    the    far    East    came    an    embassy    from    the 


\  i  i 


I 


Aachen 


180 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


great  Caliph  Haroun-al-Raschid,  bringing  an  elephant 
*'  Abulahaz  "  as  a  gift  to  the  new  Emperor. 

But  under  the  outward  prosperity  of  Charles'  closing 
years  there  were  not  wanting  ominous  indications  of 
danger.  The  northern  coasts  were  already  being 
plundered  by  Scandinavian  pirates,  and  the  Saracens 
were  beginning  to  harry  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 
Danes  and  Slavs  were  restive  on  the  frontiers.  The 
story  told  by  the  monk  of  St.  Gall  of  how  Charles, 
sitting  at  meat  in  his  palace  at  Narbonne,  saw  the 
white  sails  of  a  Viking  ship,  and  wept  bitterly  as  he 
foretold  the  woes  that  were  coming  on  his  subjects, 
though  probably  a  later  legend,  expresses  a  true  fact. 
Charles'  last  years  must  sometimes  have  been  saddened 
by  forebodings  of  possible  disaster. 

They  were  saddened  also  by  domestic  grief.  In  810 
Pippin,  the  brave  and  noble  young  king  of  Italy,  died 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-three  while  campaigning  in 
Dalmatia.  Next  year  the  Emperor's  eldest  son  Charles 
died,  and  Louis  alone  remained  to  inherit  the  kingdom. 
In  818  Charles  held  a  great  assembly  at  Aachen,  at 
which  he  presented  his  son  to  the  nobles  as  his  suc- 
cessor. Early  in  the  following  year  he  died,  in  the 
seventy-second  year  of  his  age  and  the  forty-seventh  of 

his  reign. 

Until  the  accession  of  Charles  the  Frankish  kingdom 
had  no  fixed  capital.  In  the  early  part  of  his  reign  he 
carried  on  the  administration  of  his  kingdom  chiefly 
from  his  three  palaces  at  Worms,  Ingelheim  and 
Nimuegen.  But  after  795  he  made  his  home  at  the 
city  between  the  Khine  and  the  Meuse  that  the  Eomans 


11 


CAROLUS  IMPERATOR 


181 


called  Aquae  Grani,  the  German  Aachen  and  the  French 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  Charles  was  attracted  to  the  place 
by  its  hot  medicinal  springs,  and  there  he  built  a  palace 
and  a  church,  for  the  adornment  of  which  churches  at 
Kome  and  Kavenna  were  plundered  of  their  treasures. 
Around  Aachen  stretched  wide  parks,  where  Charles 
and  his  courtiers  rode  and  hunted. 

Of  Charles'  personal  character  and  habits  his  bio- Personal 
grapher  Einhard  gives  us  much  interesting  information,  ot  charies 
He  was  a  mighty  eater,  with  a  special  love  for  roast 
meats,  and  found  the  Church's  rules  of  fasting  hard  to 
observe.  In  the  matter  of  drink  he  was  temperate,  and 
strove  to  discourage  drunkenness  among  his  officers  and 
courtiers.  He  was  wont  to  have  books  read  to  him 
at  the  evening  meal — either  history  or  the  works  of 
St.  Augustine,  whose  City  of  God  was  his  special 
favourite.  He  knew  Latin  and  some  Greek,  but  in 
spite  of  earnest  efforts  never  succeeded  in  learning  to 
write.  He  was  interested  in  the  literature  of  his  native 
land  and  tried  to  preserve  the  old  Teutonic  ballads 
of  the  Franks  of  which  he  had  a  collection  made.  Un- 
fortunately his  successor,  Louis  the  Pious,  deeming 
them  mere  relics  of  paganism,  caused  the  book  to  be 
destroyed. 

Of  his  personal  appearance  and  habits  Einhard  has 
much  to  tell.  "  His  gait  was  firm,  all  the  habit  of  his 
body  manly ;  his  voice  clear  but  scarcely  corresponding 
to  his  stature ;  his  health  good,  except  that  during  the 
last  four  years  of  his  life  he  was  often  attacked  with 
fever,  and  at  the  last  he  limped  with  one  foot.  He 
guided  himself  much  more  by  his  own  fancy  than  by  the 


.. 


M' 


182 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


I 


counsel  of  his  physicians,  whom  he  disliked  because  they 
tried  to  persuade  him  to  give  up  roast  meats,  to  which 
he  was  accustomed,  and  to  take  to  boiled.  He  kept  up 
diligently  his  exercises  of  riding  and  hunting,  in  which 
he  followed  the  custom  of  his  nation.  He  delighted  in 
the  steam  of  hot-water  baths,  being  a  frequent  and  skil- 
ful swimmer.  Not  only  did  he  invite  his  sons  to  the 
bath,  but  also  his  friends  and  nobles,  sometimes  even  a 
crowd  of  courtiers  and  bodyguards,  so  that  at  times  as 
many  as  a  hundred  men  or  more  would  be  bathing 
together. 

**  He  loved  foreigners,  and  took  the  greatest  pains  to 
entertain  them,  so  that  their  number  often  seemed  a 
real  burden,  not  only  to  the  palace  but  even  to  the 
kingdom. 

**  He  was  full  even  to  overflowing  with  eloquence, 
and  could  express  all  his  ideas  with  great  clearness. 
He  was  in  truth  so  eloquent  that  he  seemed  like  a  pro- 
fessional rhetorician. 

"  He  was  a  devout  and  zealous  supporter  of  the 
Christian  religion,  in  which  he  had  been  instructed  from 
infancy.  He  regularly  attended  the  church  that  he  had 
built  at  Aquisgranum  morning  and  evening,  and  also  in 
the  hours  of  the  night  and  at  the  time  of  sacrifice,  as 
far  as  his  health  permitted ;  and  he  took  great  pains 
that  all  the  rites  celebrated  there  should  be  performed 
with  the  greatest  decorum,  constantly  admonishing  the 
ministers  of  the  church  that  they  should  not  allow  any- 
thing dirty  or  unbecoming  to  be  brought  there.  He 
took  great  pains  to  reform  the  style  of  reading  and  sing- 
ing, in  both  of  which  he  was  highly  accomplished." 


THE    LOWER    RHINE 


Verdun 


>«lo<^ 


Scale 


to 


10       20        30        40       bO 


Engl.Miles 


184 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Of  the  genuineness  of  his  piety  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
He  was  anxious  not  only  to  further  the  extension  of 
Christianity  but  also  to  purify  it  of  the  corruptions  that 
threatened  to  destroy  its  vitahty.  A  certain  grim 
humour  appears  in  some  of  the  stories  that  tradition  has 
handed  down  of  his  dealings  with  worldly  and  grasping 
ecclesiastics. 

"While  his  sons  were  provided,  as  they  grew  up,  with 
local  courts  of  their  own,  his  daughters  remained  at 
home,  and  travelled  with  him  when  he  moved  about  his 
kingdom.  "As  those  daughters  were  most  beautiful 
and  he  loved  them  dearly,  it  was  strange  that  he  never 
gave  one  of  them  m  marriage,  either  to  one  of  his  own 
people  or  to  a  foreigner,  but  kept  them  always  with  him 
in  the  house  till  the  day  of  his  death,  declaring  that  he 
could  not  dispense  with  their  daily  companionship." 
Einhard  hints  at  scandals  that  Charles  bore  with  forti- 
tude ;  and  no  doubt  there  was  a  less  pleasing  side  to  the 
Hfe  of  the  Frankish  Court.  Charles  himself  was  far  from 
immaculate,  judged  by  the  standard  of  strict  Christian 
principle.  But  the  life  of  courts  has  seldom  proved  a 
training-ground  of  domestic  virtues,  and  on  the  whole  the 
court  of  Charles  the  Great  stands  out  in  the  chronicles  of 
the  time  as  an  oasis  of  cheerful  home  life  amid  the  wars 
and  turbulence  of  a  rough  and  uncouth  age. 


CHAPTEK  XIX 

LAW  AND   ADMINISTRATION   IN  THE   EMPIRE 

QHAKLES  inherited  from  his  predecessors  the  ad- 
ministrative system  that  the  Frankish  rulers  had 
gradually   developed    out    of    the    primitive    Teutonic 
arrangements  that  the  Franks  had  brought  with  them 
from  their  northern  home.    To  this  he  added  from  time 
to  time,  so  that  by  the  end  of  his  reign  the  Empire  was 
governed  by  a  system  of  administration  that  appeared 
adequate  and  efhcient.     But  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was 
neither,  for  Charles  was  unable  to  develop  an  efficient 
and  trustworthy  body  of  officials.     The  Byzantine  Em- 
pire was  strong,  even  when  it  seemed  most  weak,  because 
it  was  served  by  a  body  of  well-trained  and  well-paid 
civil  servants ;  but  the  Carolingian  Empire  was  weak, 
even  when  it  seemed  strongest,  because  Charles  had  to 
depend   on   officers   who  were  untrained   and  unpaid. 
But  the  Byzantine  Empire  only  retained   its  bureau- 
cratic system  by  a  burden  of  taxation  such  as  Charles 
dared  not  lay  on  the  shoulders  of  his  free  Franks,  or 
even  on  the  subject  nations  of  his  Empire.     The  burden 
of  military  service,  and  the  tithes  that  were  levied  by 
royal  authority   for  religious  purposes,   often  provoked 
strong  resentment,  and  the  expense  of  government  had 
consequently  to  be  kept  down  at  all  costs.     But  this 

185 


i  : 


" 


186 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The 
Emperor 


could  only  be  done  by  acting  through  unpaid  agents  who 
were  likely  to  prove  either  inefficient  or  corrupt. 

At  the  head  of  the  whole  system  was  the  Emperor, 
who  as  Emperor  recognised  no  earthly  superior,  but  as 
king  of  the  Franks  was  bound  to  act  in  consultation 
with  his  great  nobles  and,  at  least  nominally,  with  the 
armed  warriors  who  assembled  every  spring  at  the 
annual  *'  May  field  ".  A  smaller  gathering  was  held  in 
the  autumn,  at  which  probably  only  the  great  magnates 
attended.  It  was  at  these  assembhes  that  fresh  laws 
were  promulgated  and  questions  of  peace  or  war  de- 
cided. 

The  two  most  important  outlying  provinces  of  the 
Empire— Italy  and  Aquetaine— Charles  entrusted  to  his 
two  younger  sons,  who  each  had  a  court  of  his  own  and 
was  left  free  in  the  administration  of  his  own  kingdom, 
subject  to  the  general  control  of  the  Emperor. 

The  dukes  of  the  other  great  provinces  had  been 
dispossessed  in  favour  of  the  direct  authority  of  the 
Frankish  king,  but  along  all  the  frontier  of  the  Empire 
a  new  and  important  class  of  officers  had  grown  up  in  the 
Margraves  Margraves  of  the  Marches.  In  the  South  the  Duke  of 
Spoleto  acted  as  margrave  and  carried  on  a  desultory 
war  with  the  Lombard  Duke  of  Beneventum.  The 
Margrave  of  Friuli  defended  the  eastern  frontiers  of 
Italy,  and  the  province  of  Istria  was  also  a  kind  of  March 
on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Frankish  kingdom. 

Along  the  Danube  the  Ostmark,  ruled  by  two  mar- 
graves, kept  back  the  flood  of  Slavonic  invasion  from 
Bavaria,  and  farther  north,  in  Bohemia,  the  Empire 
had   driven   a    wedge   of    conquest   into   the   Eastern 


LAW  AND  ADMINISTRATION  IN  THE  EMPIRE    187 

Slavonic  world.  Along  the  Elbe,  and  on  the  Danish 
frontier,  other  margraves  kept  watch,  and  the  circle  of 
frontier  defences  was  completed  by  the  Breton  March, 
where  Eoland  was  at  one  time  warden,  and  the  Spanish 
March  in  the  south,  where  the  Count  of  Toulouse  waged 
almost  constant  war  against  the  Saracens. 

To  complete  the  defences  of  the  Empire  a  Frankish 
fleet  was  constructed  which  guarded  the  channel,  for  a 
while,  from  the  raids  of  the  Norsemen. 

Internally  the  Empire  was  divided  into  counties  Local 
(pagits) ,  each  ruled  by  a  count  nominally  appointed  by  tion ^"'^  ^^ 
the  Emperor,  but  really  holding  the  position  of  a  local 
hereditary  magnate.  Each  count  had  his  court  or  mallus 
in  the  central  town  of  his  county.  The  custom  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  was  that  every  man  should  be  judged 
by  the  law  of  his  own  nation.  But  in  practice  this  re- 
solved itself  into  a  sort  of  equitable  jurisdiction  based 
partly  on  common  sense,  partly  on  the  personal  will  of 
the  count,  from  whom  impartial  justice  could  hardly  be 
expected  in  matters  where  his  own  interests  were  af- 
fected. The  pagus  was  subdivided  into  hundreds,  each 
under  a  local  officer  appointed  by  the  count. 

Into  this  system  the  Emperor  introduced  two  changes.  The  nmsi 
The  Frankish  kings  were  accustomed  to  send  missi  on 
various  errands  into  the  provinces  of  the  kingdom. 
Charles  now  created  a  new  body  of  permanent  missi 
dominiciy  leading  nobles  of  the  kingdom  who  travelled 
around  definite  circuits  supervising  the  local  administra- 
tion and  acting  as  inspectors  of  all  departments  of 
government.  But  several  things  rendered  their  work 
ineffective.      The  circuits  were  too  large  for  effective 


188 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Central 
govern- 
ment 


supervision  ;  the  missi  were  unpaid  and  only  held  office 
for  short  periods ;  and  the  local  counts  appear  to  have 
evaded  their  control  in  various  ways — as,  for  example, 
by  persuading  suitors  to  hold  back  their  cases  till  the 
unwelcome  intruders  had  paid  their  visit. 

The  other  change  was  the  creation  of  a  kind  of  jury 
of  scahini,  who  were  intended  to  act  with  the  count  in 
the  administration  of  justice.  But  for  various  reasons 
these  scahini  do  not  appear  to  have  been  an  effective 
body,  and  local  justice  continued  to  depend  on  the  count. 

The  central  government  was  nominally  a  bureaucracy, 
really  an  autocracy.  Charles  had  his  archchaplain  for 
the  management  of  ecclesiastical  business  and  a  body 
of  Counts  of  the  Palace  {comes  palatii),  one  for  each 
nation  of  the  Empire,  who  were  supposed  to  deal  with 
appeals  from  the  local  counts,  the  most  important  being 
referred  to  the  Emperor.  But  in  fact  the  Emperor, 
partly  because  of  the  dearth  of  competent  officers, 
and  partly  through  the  unwillingness  of  a  strong  ruler 
to  delegate  power,  retained  in  his  own  hands  the 
actual  work  of  government.  A  suitor  who  could  secure 
access  to  the  Emperor  could  generally  count  on  justice, 
and  at  the  Mayfield  assemblies  Charies  mixed  freely 
with  his  subjects;  but  a  system  built  up  around  the 
person  of  the  sovereign  was  bound  to  break  down  when 
his  powers  grew  enfeebled  with  age  or  his  sceptre  passed 
into  hands  less  able  to  wield  it. 

The  lack  of  a  trained  body  of  secular  officials  threw 
Charles  back  on  the  support  of  the  great  ecclesiastics 
who  were  already  rising  to  a  position  of  great  wealth  and 
influence.     The  work  of  resumption  of  Church  lands, 


LAW  AND  ADMINISTRATION  IN  THE  EMPIRE    189 

that  had  cost  Charles  Martel  the  goodwill  of  the  monkish 
chroniclers,  now  began  to  be  undone. 

Two  significant  facts  appear  in  the  Capitularies  ofBegin- 
the  closing  years  of  the  reign.  One  is  the  growing  Feudalism 
difficulty  of  securing  from  the  freemen  of  the  Empire 
the  military  service  that  they  were  liable  to  furnish. 
Now  that  the  wars  of  the  Emperor  were  no  longer  wars 
of  conquest,  in  which  plunder  and  glory  might  be  gained, 
the  interruption  of  ordinary  life  caused  by  military  ser- 
vice was  resented.  To  meet  this  difficulty  anew  system 
was  adopted  that  was  destined  to  have  far-reaching  con- 
sequences. Liabihty  to  military  service  was  now  made 
territorial  instead  of  personal;  a  certain  area  of  land 
being  made  responsible  for  furnishing  a  warrior  to  the 
host,  the  inhabitants  sharing  the  duty  or  furnishing  a 
deputy. 

The  other  significant  fact  is  the  growth  of  the  system 
of  vassalage.  Freemen  began  to  commend  themselves 
to  the  local  count  or  ecclesiastic,  securing  protection 
in  return  for  certain  services.  So  begins  the  feudal 
system,  of  the  development  of  which  more  must  be  said 
in  a  later  chapter.  The  Frankish  kingdom  had  held 
together  while  the  process  of  conquest  had  kept  alive 
the  sentiment  of  loyalty ;  as  soon  as  the  extension  of 
the  kingdom  ceased,  local  feeling  reasserted  itself,  and 
this  process  of  disintegration  had  begun  even  before 
Charles  handed  on  the  sceptre  to  the  less  masterful 
hands  of  his  son. 

Charles  made  no  attempt  to  compile  a  legal  code  for  Legislation 
his  Empire,  but  he  endeavoured  to  reduce  the  various 
national  systems  of  law,  under  which  the  peoples  of  his 


u 


i 


190 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Empire  were  living,  to  better  order.  *^  After  his  as- 
sumption of  the  Imperial  title,"  says  Einhard,  **  as  he 
perceived  that  many  things  were  lacking  in  the  laws  of 
his  people,  he  thought  to  add  those  things  that  were 
wanting,  to  reconcile  discrepancies,  and  to  correct  what 
was  bad  and  ill  expressed.  But  of  all  this  he  accom- 
pHshed  nothing,  except  that  he  added  a  few  chapters,  and 
those  imperfect  ones,  to  the  laws  of  the  Franks.  All 
the  legal  customs,  however,  of  the  various  nations  under 
his  sway,  he  caused  to  be  committed  to  writing,  if  they 
were  not  already  written." 

But  it  is  in  his  Capitularies  that  the  legislative  activity 
of  Charles  shows  itself.     These  Capitularies  were  edicts 
issued  by  the  Emperor  from  time  to  time  (many  of  them 
before  his  acceptance  of  the  Imperial  title) ,  in  consulta- 
tion with  his  nobles,  regulating  the  affairs  of  Church  and 
State.     They  were  collected  into  books  in  the  ninth 
century,  but  they  are  not  to  be  thought  of  as  a  code  of 
law.    Some  of  them  are  royal  proclamations,  some  ordin- 
ances, some  instructions  to  the  missi  or  answers  to  their 
questions.    Some  appear  to  be  no  more  than  notes,  jotted 
down  by  the  Emperor,  of  things  he  wanted  to  remember. 
In   his  History   of   Civilisation    Guizot   attempts   to 
classify  these  Capitularies  according  to  subject-matter. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  deal  with  them  in  any  detail 
here.     They  show  the  wide  range  of  Charles'  administra- 
tive activity  and  the  sincerity  of  his  efforts  to  enforce  the 
Christian  moral  standard  on  his  people.     In  all  proba- 
bility many  of  them  remained  pious  opinions,  pointing 
to  a  standard  of  life  far  in  advance  of  anything  that  the 
Erankish  kingdom  was  capable  of  reaching. 


CHAPTEE  XX 

ALCUIN  AND  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.     JOHN  SCOTUS 

TN  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  learning  in  Europe 
was  reduced  to  a  very  low  ebb.     Schools  were  rare, 
and  the  Church  authorities  had  already  begun  to  frown 
on  secular  studies. as  corrupting  to  the  student. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century  Isidore, 
Bishop  of  Seville,  had  a  high  reputation  for  learning. 
He  was  a  voluminous  writer,  and  his  books  formed  the 
text-books  for  students  in  the  schools  of  Western  Europe 
till  the  tenth  century.  But  there  is  little  in  them  of 
real  value,  and  after  his  death,  in  636,  no  great  man 
of  learning  appears  in  Western  Europe  till  the  coming 
of  Alcuin. 

While,  however,  the  study  of  the  great  writers  of  the 
ancient  world  decayed  on  the  continent,  it  began  in  Ire- 
land, where  the  coming  of  Christianity  was  accompanied 
by  a  great  Hterary  revival.  The  Irish,  or  "Scots"  as  Ireland 
they  are  called  by  contemporary  chroniclers,  became  not 
only  messengers  of  Christianity  but  also  of  culture. 
Till  the  Norse  invasions  of  the  eighth  century  Ireland 
remained  a  home  of  literature  and  of  students. 

From  Ireland  the  lamp  of  learning  was  passed  on 
to  the  neighbouring  island.  England  also  received 
educational  stimulus  from  another  source,  for  Theodore  nof- 

191  thumbria 


192 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


of  Tarsus,  sent  from  Kome  to  organise  the  Church  in 
England,   brought   with   him    Hadrian,  Abbot   of   St. 
Peter's,  Eome,  under  whom  a  flourishing  school  began 
at  Canterbury.     Under  his  influence  an  Enghshman, 
Benedict  Biscop,  founded  a  great  library  at  Wearmouth, 
in  Northumbria,  where  the  influence  of  the  northern 
missionaries  was  still    strong.     At  Malmesbury  also  a 
Scottish  teacher,  Mailduf,  set  up  a  school,  which  grew 
and  flourished.     But  it  was  at  Jarrow,  a  daughter  house 
of  the  monastery  of  Wearmouth,  that  EngHsh  learning 
found  its  greatest  representative  in  the  scholar  whom 
later  ages  have  loved  to  call  the  ''Venerable"  Bede. 
Born  in  673,  Bede  spent  his  whole  Hfe  at  the  monastery 
of  Jarrow.     **  While  attentive  to  the  rules  of  my  order 
and  the  service  of  the  Church,  my  constant  pleasure 
lay  in  learning,  teaching  or  writing."     Bede  had  nothing 
of  the  hostility  towards  secular  learning  that  we  find 
in  Gregory  the  Great  and  other  Church  leaders  on  the 
continent.     He  loved  Virgil  and  the  other  Latin  poets, 
and  was  famihar  with  Plato  and  Aristotle.    His  life  was 
spent   in   teaching   and  writing.     Crowds  of   students 
flocked  to  him,  and  over  forty  works  remained  after  his 
death  to  attest  his  literary  activity.     On  his  death,  in 
735,  the  educational  centre  of  England  shifted  to  York, 
where    Egbert,    the    bishop    (afterwards    archbishop), 
developed  the  school  that  Wilfred  had  founded.     Nor- 
thumbria   remained    the    most    important    centre    of 
learning  in  Western  Europe  till  the  Danish  invasions 
destroyed  its  prosperity  and  peace. 

But  before  this  the  revival  of  learning  had  passed 
from  Northumbria  to  the  Court  of  Charles  the  Great. 


ALCUIN  AND  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      193 

The  earliest  men  of  learning  to  arrive  at  the  Prankish 
Court  were  "Scots"  from  Ireland,  and  they  were 
followed  by  Alcuin. 

Alcuin  or  Albinus,  as  he  called  himself,  was  a  Nor-  Alcuin 
thumbrian  by  birth,  and  had  been  brought  up  in  Egbert's 
school  at  York,  where  he  became  the  favourite  pupil  of 
the  archbishop.  Ethelbert,  who  succeeded  Egbert  as 
headmaster  of  the  school,  used  Alcuin  on  various  con- 
fidential missions,  one  of  which  brought  him  to  the  Court 
of  Charles  the  Great  about  the  year  773.  On  this  occa- 
sion he  was  apparently  sent  on  by  Charles  to  Eome 
on  some  business  in  which  he  was  concerned.  When 
Ethelbert  succeeded  as  archbishop,  Alcuin  became 
practically  head  of  the  school,  and  on  the  retirement  of 
the  archbishop  he  was  sent  to  Rome  for  the  pall  for  his 
successor,  Eanbald.  On  the  way  he  met  Charles  at 
Parma  and  received  a  pressing  invitation  to  return  with 
him  to  Francia.  He  returned  home  to  obtain  leave  of 
absence  from  the  archbishop,  and  then  settled  down 
in  the  dominions  of  Charles,  which  he  never  quitted 
again  except  for  a  short  visit  of  two  years  to  Northumbria, 
from  791  to  792.  At  the  Prankish  Court  he  became 
head  of  the  Palace  School  and  practically  Minister  of 
Education. 

The  Palace  School,  originally  established  in  the  days 
of  the  Merovingian  kings  for  the  education  of  the  kings' 
sons  and  the  sons  of  the  nobles  of  the  court,  was  de- 
veloped by  Charles  into  a  kind  of  court  university  of 
learned  men  whom  he  gathered  from  all  parts.  He 
himself  attended  lectures  with  his  sons,  and  succeeded 

in  learning  Latin  and  Greek.     But  Charles  also  desired 
13 


11 


194 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The  court 
school 


to  extend  education  throughout  his  realm,  and  in  a 
famous  capitulary  of  787  he  ordered  the  establishment 
of  schools  in  connection  with  every  monastery  in  his 
kingdom.  In  the  organisation  of  these  schools,  and  m 
providing  text-books  for  them,  Alcuin  took  a  leading 
part.  He  was  endowed  by  the  king  with  the  revenues 
of  the  monastery  of  St.  Lupus  at  Troyes  and  Bethlehem 

at  Ferri^res. 

He  also  took  a  leading  share  in  the  theological  con- 
troversies of   the  time.     It  was  the   outbreak   of   the 
Adoptionist  heresy  that  brought  him  back  from  England 
in  792,  and  at  the  Council  of  Frankfort  he  was  the 
leading  champion  of  orthodoxy.     How  large  a  share  he 
had  in  the  events  that  led  to  the  coronation  of  Charles 
in  800  we  do  not  know ;  but  some  expressions  in  his 
letters  to  the  king  suggest  that  the  restoration  of  the 
Imperial  office  in  the  West  had  been  discussed  between 
them.     After  792  he  settled  at  the  great  monastery  of 
St.  Martin  at  Tours,  of  which  he  became  abbot,  and 
there  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life,  carrying  on  a  constant 
correspondence  with  Charles  and  other  friends  at  the 

court. 

The  learned  men  of  the  court  were  apparently  a 
merry  crew.  They  bandy  jests  and  exchange  riddles, 
and  adopt  for  epistolary  purposes  the  names  of  classical 
or  bibhcal  characters.  Thus  Charles  becomes  David ; 
Alcuin,  Flaccus  Albinus ;  Angilbert,  Homer;  and  the 
king's  daughters  and  friends  appear  similarly  disguised. 
The  king  himself  entered  with  zest  into  the  battle  of 
wits,  and  loved  to  perplex  his  learned  men  with  con- 
undrums. 


ALCUIN  AND  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      195 

Several  other  scholars  joined  the  court  at  about  the 
same  time  as  Alcuin.  Peter  of  Pisa,  who  had  formerly 
taught  at  Pavia,  came  to  Francia  about  780,  already  an 
old  man,  and  taught  grammar  there  till  his  death  some 
years  later.  A  more  notable  man  reached  Aachen  a 
little  later  in  Paul  the  Deacon,  the  historian  of  the 
Lombards.  He  came  to  the  court  to  plead  for  his  brother, 
who  had  been  imprisoned,  and  his  property  confiscated, 
for  his  share  in  some  Lombard  rising.  He  became  a 
special  favourite  with  the  king,  and  stayed  at  the  court 
for  a  good  many  years,  finally  retiring  to  Monte  Cassino, 
where  he  died. 

Another  literary  colleague  of  Alcuin  was  Einhard  (or  Einhard 
Eginhard),  who  was  educated  at  the  monastery  of  Fulda 
and  came  to  the  Frankish  Court  as  a  young  man.  He 
became  a  close  friend  of  the  king,  who  employed  him 
in  various  important  public  works.  His  skill  in  all 
manner  of  metal  work  earned  him  the  nickname,  in  the 
palace  circle,  of  Bezaleel.  About  the  year  826  he  and 
his  wife  parted  to  enter  religious  houses,  and  Einhard 
retired  to  the  monastery  of  Seligenstadt,  where  he  died 
about  840. 

Part  of  Einhard's  work  appears  to  have  been  superin- 
tending the  compilation  of  the  official  annals  of  the  reign, 
but  the  literary  work  by  which  he  is  now  chiefly  re- 
membered is  his  life  of  Charles  the  Great.  The  De  Vita 
Caroli  Magni  is  modelled  on  Suetonius'  life  of  Augustus, 
and  is  of  course  warmly  eulogistic.  But  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  picture 
presented  to  us  of  the  king  and  his  court,  as  Einhard 
knew  both  from  personal  experience. 


11 


196 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The 

revival  of 
learning 


III 


Though  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  education  given  in 
the  palace  and  monastic  schools  was  the  study  of 
theology,  Alcuin  did  not  discourage  the  liberal  arts,  and 
the  attitude  of  the  Koman  authorities  towards  these 
grew  more  favourable.  But  towards  the  end  of  his  life, 
Alcuin  seems  to  have  felt  some  fear  lest  the  study  of 
classical  literature  might  take  too  prominent  a  place  m 
the  educational  system. 

One  of  the  most  important  services  that  Charles  and 
Alcuin  did  for  sound  learning  was  the  collecting  and 
copying  of  the  texts  of  the  classical  authors.  Many  of 
these  had  been  copied  and  recopied  by  ignorant  clerks 
till  they  had  become  almost  unintelligible.  The  texts 
were  now  revised  by  competent  scholars  and  then  copied 
in  the  scriptoria  of  the  monasteries  in  the  beautiful 
Eoman    characters   that    now   superseded    the   clumsy 

uncial  letters. 

The  text  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  service  books 
of  the  Church  were  also  carefully  revised,  and  in  the 
last  year  of  Charles'  Hfe  we  read  of  him  as  -  correcting, 
with  the  assistance  of  certain  learned  Greeks  and  Synans, 
the  four  gospels  of  Jesus  Christ ". 

Strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  encourage  sound 
learning  in  the  monasteries  and  cathedral  schools.  In 
a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz  Charles  writes : 
**  You  are  striving  by  God's  help  to  conquer  souls,  and 
yet  you  are  not  anxious  to  instruct  your  clergy  in  letters, 
at  which  I  cannot  be  too  astonished.  You  see  on  all 
sides  those  who  have  submitted  to  your  rule  plunged  in 
the  darkness  of  ignorance,  and  you  leave  them  in  their 
blindness."      In  a  kind  of  Imperial  rescript,  addressed 


ALCUIN  AND  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING      197 

to  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  his  realm,  he  says :  *'  We 
have  thought  fit  that,  in  all  bishoprics  and  monasteries 
entrusted  by  Christ's  grace  to  our  government,  care 
should  be  taken  not  only  to  live  regularly  and  in  con- 
formity with  holy  religion,  but  also  to  study  letters 
seriously,  to  teach  and  to  learn,  each  man  according  to 
his  ability,  and  by  the  help  of  God,  so  that  the  religious 
rule  of  life,  which  brings  with  it  honourable  conduct  and 
zeal  for  teaching  and  learning,  may  give  regularity  and 
beauty  to  language  ". 

Efforts  were  also  made  to  improve  the  services  of  the 
Church,  and  in  78G  Charles  brought  singers  from  Italy 
to  Metz  and  Soissons,  where  they  taught  the  Gregorian 
method  of  chanting  to  Frankish  clerks. 

One  important  result  of  this  Hterary  energy  was  to 
restore  Latin,  which  was  deteriorating  in  Northern 
Europe  into  an  almost  unintelligible  jargon,  once  more 
to  the  level  of  a  literary  language.  The  Latin  prose  and 
verse  of  Angilbert  or  Alcuin  is  often  crude  and  ungram- 
matical,  but  it  is  an  immense  improvement  on  the  scanty 
fragments  that  we  have  left  from  the  previous  period. 

Though  the  mass  of  the  laymen  remained  unaffected 
by  this  literary  revival,  and  could  generally  neither  read 
nor  write,  the  standard  of  the  education  of  the  clergy 
was  undoubtedly  raised,  and  never  again  sank  as  low  as 
it  had  done  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  The 
monastic  schools  estabhshed  at  this  time  went  on  through 
the  dark  century  that  followed,  and  though  the  confusion 
and  contests  of  the  time  precluded  further  progress,  the 
ground  won  through  the  efforts  of  Charles  and  his 
literary  helpers  was  never  actually  lost. 


198 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


John 

Scotus 
Erigena 


Only  one  thinker  of  the  first  rank  bridges  the  gulf 
that  separates  Alcuin  from  the  renaissance  of  the 
eleventh  century.  John  Scotus  Erigena  was  born  just 
at  the  date  of  Alcuin's  death.  He  was  apparently  a 
native  of  Ireland,  but  of  the  details  of  his  life  very  little 
is  known.  All  that  is  certain  is  that  he  came  to  the 
Court  of  Charles  the  Bald  about  the  year  847  and  re- 
mained for  some  years  at  Paris,  where  he  is  said  to  have 
presided  over  the  school.  Paris  was  at  this  time  rising 
into  importance  as  a  political  and  literary  centre,  partly 
through  its  nearness  to  the  great  monastery  and  Church 
of  St.  Denis,  which  was  the  burial-place  of  the  West 
Frankish  kings. 

One  of  John's  earhest  tasks  was  to  translate  into  Latin 
a  Greek   treatise   supposed   to  have   been  written  by 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  the  St.  Denis  who  was  associ- 
ated in  legend  with  the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in 
Gaul.     Mr.  Poole  calls  John  '*  the  last  representative  of 
the  Greek  spirit  in  the  West ".     His  writings,  of  which 
the  most  important  is  a  Philosophical  dialogue  called 
De  Divisione  Naturte,  show  a  speculative  mind,  bold 
even  to  rashness  and  little  disposed  to  accept  the  dog- 
mas of  authority.     His  opinions  were  pronounced  hetero- 
dox even  in  his  lifetime,  and  after  his  death  his  name 
became  the  battle-cry  of  theological  contest.     He  has 
been  described  as  the  founder  of  mediaeval  scholasticism, 
but  it  would  probably  be  more  correct  to  regard  scholas- 
ticism  as  a   reaction   from  his   dangerous   speculative 

activity. 

He  is  said,  in  later  traditions,  to  have  lived  on  terms 
of  close  friendship  with    Charles  the   Bald,  much   as 


ALCUIN  AND  THE  REVIVAL  OP  LEARNING     199 

Alcuin  had  done  with  his  great  predecessor,  and  to  have 
returned  to  England  after  the  death  of  his  patron  in 
877.  According  to  one  legend  he  became  head  of  the 
school  at  Malmesbury  and  was  murdered  by  his  scholars. 
But  it  is  much  more  Hkely  that  he  died  in  France  soon 
after  877. 

Hincmar  of  Eheims,  though  primarily  an  ecclesiastical  Hincmar  of 
statesman  and  administrator,  ought  perhaps  to  find  a^()6!882 
place  beside  John  Scotus  in  the  records  of  the  ninth 
century.  Bom  in  806,  he  became  a  favourite  adviser 
of  Louis  the  Pious,  and  on  his  death  was  taken  into 
favour  by  Charles  the  Bald,  who  appointed  him,  in 
844,  as  Archbishop  of  the  great  See  of  Kheims.  For 
nearly  forty  years  Hincmar  ruled  as  Primate  of  the 
Church  in  West  Francia,  the  adviser  and  friend  of  a 
series  of  CaroHngian  monarchs,  with  whom  he  corre- 
sponded on  familiar  terms.  He  was  jealous  in  maintain- 
ing the  rights  of  his  order,  and  did  a  good  deal  to 
strengthen  the  position  of  the  Church  in  West  Fran- 
cia. In  the  literary  world  he  is  chiefly  known  as  the 
author  of  two  treatises  on  Predestination,  written  in  con- 
nection with  a  controversy  in  which  he  became  involved 
with  a  monk  named  Gottschalk,  who  was  supported  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  the  ecclesiastical  head  of 
Southern  Gaul.  John  Scotus  had  already,  at  Hincmar 's 
request,  endeavoured  to  controvert  the  heresies  of 
Gottschalk,  but,  in  the  opinion  of  the  orthodox,  had  pro- 
mulgated more  heresies  than  he  disproved.  Hincmar 
died  in  December,  882,  at  Epernay,  whither  he  had  fled 
from  a  Norse  attack  on  Rheims. 


ii 


THE  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  ROMANCE 


201 


Early 
legends 


CHAPTEE  XXI 

THE  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  ROMANCE 

"VrO  account  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Great  would 
be  complete  without  some  notice  of  the  cycle  of 
romance  and  legend  that  gathered  around  the  king 
and  his  court.  In  media3val  literature  Charlemagne 
and  his  paladins  rival  the  fame  of  King  Arthur  and  his 
Bound  Table. 

Very  soon  after  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  men 
began  to  look  back  to  his  reign  as  a  kind  of  golden  age. 
They  said  of  him,  as  later  ages  said  of  his  great  successor 
Barbarossa,  that  he  was  not  dead,  and  that  he  would 
come  forth  from  his  tomb,  when  the  appointed  time  had 
come,  to  restore  good  order  and  peace.  He  was  reported 
to  have  been  buried  seated  on  a  chair  of  state,  with  his 
sword  Joyeuse  laid  unsheathed  across  his  knees.  Otto 
III.  is  said  to  have  opened  the  tomb  at  Aachen  and  to 
have  found  the  body  of  the  Emperor,  still  undecayed, 
grasping  a  sceptre,  with  a  gold  chain  round  the  neck, 
which  the  young  monarch  removed  and  kept  as  a  relic. 
But  history  throws  doubt  on  the  story. 

The  origin  of  the  Charlemagne  romances  is  to  be 
found  in  the  chansons  of  the  minstrels  of  France,  who 
took  floating  stories  of  the  heroes  of  Charles'  wars  and 
sang  their  exploits  by  the  camp  fires  of  the  western 

200 


lands  where  the  Romance  language  was  beginning  to 
develop.  Gradually  these  ballads  grew,  as  fresh  material 
from  other  sources  was  added  to  them.  In  the  eleventh 
century  these  chansons  de  gestes  were  taken  in  hand  by 
literary  men  and  woven  into  connected  stories.  In  these 
stories  Charlemagne  appears  as  the  great  leader  of  the 
Christian  cause  against  the  Moslems.  They  centre 
largely  in  Charles'  Spanish  campaign,  which  becomes 
a  crusade,  in  which  the  Christian  king  and  his  knights 
smite  the  infidel  in  great  contests  through  years  of  war. 
Of  these  works  by  far  the  best  known  was  the  Chanson 
de  Roland — not  the  Song  of  Roland  that  Taillefer  sang 
as  he  led  the  Norman  charge  at  Senlac,  but  a  much 
longer  and  more  literary  production.  Here  the  Emperor 
appears  as  ruler  of  all  Europe,  served  by  a  band  of  heroes, 
of  whom  Roland  and  Oliver  are  the  most  famous. 

In  the  age  of  the  Crusades  this  aspect  of  the  influence  of 
Emperor's  work  grows  more  prominent.  All  other  ^"^^  ^^ 
parts  of  the  story  are  subordinated  to  the  crusading 
idea.  Even  Widukind  and  Desiderius,  the  Saxon  and 
Lombard  enemies  of  Charles,  now  appear  as  Saracen 
leaders,  and  Charlemagne  is  described  as  voyaging  to 
Jerusalem  and  visiting  Constantinople. 

The  History  of  Archbishop  Turpin,  a  prose  romance, 
written  in  the  form  of  a  supposed  letter  from  Archbishop 
Turpin  of  Rheims  to  an  archdeacon,  adds  to  the  story 
of  Roncesvalles  a  great  war  between  Charlemagne  and 
an  African  King  Argolander.  This  book  was  approved 
by  Pope  CaHxtus  in  1122,  and  was  widely  popular. 

Two  things  are  to  be  noticed  about  the  Charlemagne  charies  as 
legends  of  this  period.     They  all  regard  Charlemagne  ^jjg^"^ 
as  a  great  French  king.     It  is  interesting  to  notice  that 


It 


M 


202 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


1 1 


of  the  three  great  monarchs  of  a  later  time  who  deliber- 
ately set  the  career  of  Charles  the  Great  before  them  as 
a  model— Frederick  Barbarossa,  St.  Louis  and  Napoleon 
— two  were  French.  The  other  point  of  interest  is  the 
strongly  ecclesiastical  character  of  the  stories.  "  The 
peers  are  hardly  knights,  but  mere  fighting  monks. 
Both  Charlemagne  and  his  nephew  Eoland  are  the 
favourites  of  heaven,  who  receive  miraculous  gifts  and 
enjoy  the  intercourse  of  angels.  Strong  and  fearless, 
they  slay  their  thousands ;  but  they  do  not  joust  for  the 
pleasure  of  it;  they  do  not  crave  adventures  for  the 
honour  to  be  gained ;  they  want  the  splendid  courtesy 
of  the  chevaHer,  and,  above  all,  have  no  sense  for  the 
service  of  women.  Eoland  does  not  spare  his  lady  a 
thought.  At  his  death,  he  thinks  of  God  and  father- 
land, of  the  emperor  and  his  former  conquests,  and 
the  men  of  his  Hne ;  he  bids  his  sword  a  tender  fare- 
well ;  but  he  is  undisturbed  by  any  grief  for  the  woman 
who  holds  him  dear." 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Charlemagne  stories 
change  their  character.  It  is  not  now  the  Crusades, 
but  the  struggles  between  the  feudal  barons  and  the 
kings,  that  occupy  men's  thoughts.  So  Charlemagne 
becomes  a  feudal  monarch  surrounded  by  his  great 
vassals,  who  gradually  come  to  fill  the  foreground  as 
the  king  recedes.  At  last  he  is  little  more  than  a 
shadowy  and  ineffective  figure,  capable  only  of  oc- 
casional acts  of  tyranny,  while  the  real  heroes  of  the 
story  are  the  barons  of  his  court. 

Meanwhile  the  Charlemagne  romances  found  their 
way  to  Iceland,  where  the  great  Karlamagnus  Saga 


THE  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  ROMANCE 


203 


was  published  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Two  centuries 
later  this  was  translated  into  Danish  as  the  Kejser  Karl 
Magnus. 

Two  final  stages  follow.  The  story  of  Charlemagne 
passes  into  Spain,  where  the  Spanish  chroniclers, 
jealous  for  the  honour  of  their  own  country,  turn 
Charles'  Spanish  campaign  into  a  mere  marauding  ex- 
pedition, in  which  the  Frankish  invaders  are  driven 
headlong  by  the  valour  of  the  Spanish  leader,  Bernard 
de  Carpio.  Then  the  mocking  Italian  spirit  settles  on 
the  story,  and,  in  the  Orlando  Furioso  of  Ariosto,  holds 
up  the  whole  of  knight-errantry  to  ridicule. 

Valueless  as  it  is  from  a  historical  point  of  view,  all 
this  mass  of  legendary  matter  is  of  interest  as  showing 
how  great  was  the  impression  made  on  after-ages  by  the 
figure  of  the  great  Frankish  Emperor  as  he  stood  armed 
and  consecrated  at  the  opening  of  that  new  chapter  of 
world-history  that  we  call  the  Middle  Ages. 


THE  liEiGN  ui?   LuUL-^  THE  PiOUis 


CHAPTEK  XXII 


THE  REIGN  OF   LOUIS  THE  PIOUS 

Louis  the  'yHE  death  of  both  Charles'  elder  sons  during  his 
Pious,  814-  X  lifetime  averted,  for  a  time,  the  partition  of  his 
Empire,  and  his  surviving  son,  Louis  the  Pious,  suc- 
ceeded without  dispute  to  the  throne  of  his  father. 
Almost  the  last  act  of  Charles'  life  had  been  the  nomina- 
tion of  Louis  as  his  successor  at  a  great  gathering  of 
the  nobles  at  Aachen.  As  soon  therefore  as  the  news 
of  the  Emperor's  death  reached  him  in  Aquetaine, 
Louis  set  out  for  Aachen,  and  there  celebrated  his  ac- 
cession by  taking  the  Imperial  crown  from  the  altar  of 
the  cathedral  and  crowning  himself  as  Emperor— an 
act  of  independence  of  which  the  Pope  was  likely  to 

disapprove. 

Louis  had  for  many  years  ruled  in  Aquetaine  with 
almost  unchecked  authority.  Though  his  court  there 
was  reputed  in  Francia  to  be  "more  like  a  monastery 
than  a  court,"  he  had  proved  himself  an  effective  ruler, 
and,  with  the  help  of  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  had 
carried  on  vigorous  war  along  the  Spanish  frontier. 
But  while  he  had  acquired  the  culture  and  refinement 
of  Southern  Gaul — a  refinement  that  earned  for  him  in 
later  times  the  name  of  Louis  le  D^honnaire—he  had 
lost  much  of  the  virility  and  self-reliance  of  the  sterner 

204 


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I 


206 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


northern  lands  that  were  the  cradle  of  his  race.  There 
was  a  certain  weak  obstinacy  in  his  character  that  was 
destined,  much  more  than  his  religious  enthusiasm,  to 
prove  fatal  to  his  success. 

His  first  work  was  the  reform  of  the  court,  which  in 
the  later  years   of  his  father  had  grown  corrupt  and 
dissolute.    He  dismissed  his  father's  ministers  in  favour 
of  those  he  brought  with  him  from  Aquetaine,  and  sent 
his  sisters  into  convents.     The  influence  of  his  new  ad- 
visers and  of  his  wife  Hermengarda  was  resented  by 
the   Frankish   nobles,    among  whom   discontent   soon 
began  to  grow   up.     This   was  fostered  by   the   new 
monarch's  ecclesiastical  policy.    His  efforts  were  directed 
to  the  improvement  of  the  lives  of  the  clergy,  especially 
by  checking  the  tendency  to  secularisation  that  already 
began  to  show  itself  among  the  non-monastic  clergy. 
He  granted  to  most  of  the  monasteries  of  the  kingdom 
the  right  to  hold  their  lands  free  of  all  condition  except 
that  they  would  **  pray  for  the  welfare  of  the  Emperor 
and  Empire  ".    This  meant  that  large  tracts  of  lands 
became  immune  from  the  obligation  of  military  service, 
and  the   strength   of   the   Empire   was  proportionally 

weakened. 

When,  soon  after  Louis'  accession.  Pope  Leo  died, 
his  successor  Stephen  was  consecrated  without  the 
Imperial  sanction.  Not  only  did  Louis  accept  this 
without  protest,  he  also  allowed  the  Pope  to  visit  Kheims 
and  there  recrown  him  as  Emperor— thus  implying  that 
his  previous  coronation  was  irregular,  as  lacking  the 
sanction  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority. 

In  the  following  year,  817,  an  accident  that  nearly 


THE  REIGN  OF  LOUIS  THE  PIOUS 


207 


cost  Louis  his  life  gave  a  morbid  turn  to  his  thoughts,  Tiie 
and  led  him,  in  view  of  the  uncertainty  of  Hfe,  to  makeo^A^hen, 
provision  for  the  contingency  of  his  death  by  arranging  ^^'^ 
a  partition  of  the  Empire  among  his  three  sons,  the 
oldest  of  whom,  Lothair,  was  now  about  nineteen  years 
of   age.     The  division  followed   the  Hnes   of   Charles' 
earlier  arrangements — Lothair  shared  with   his  father 
the  Imperial  dignity,  ruling  the  old  Frankish  lands  and 
the  Italian  kingdom,  while  Aquetaine  fell  to  Pippin  and 
Bavaria  to   the   youngest,    Louis.     The  two   younger 
brothers  were  to  recognise  their  brother's  authority  and 
to  pay  visits  of  ceremony  to  him  from  time  to  time. 

This  partition  of  Aachen  raised  one  difficult  question. 
Ever  since  the  death  of  King  Pippin  his  son  Bernhard 
had  been  ruling  in  Italy  with  almost  independent 
authority  and  with  conspicuous  success.  The  young 
king,  seeing  in  this  partition  a  scheme  for  ousting  him 
from  his  inheritance,  rose  in  rebellion.  The  event  that 
followed  was  destined  to  cast  a  lasting  shadow  of  dis- 
grace and  remorse  over  the  reign  of  Louis.  Enticed 
into  negotiation,  Bernhard  was  induced,  trusting  to  an 
Imperial  safe-conduct,  to  cross  the  Alps  and  appear  at 
Chalons-sur-Saone.  There  he  was  arrested,  sent  to 
Aachen,  tried  as  a  rebel  and  sentenced  to  death.  Louis 
commuted  the  sentence  to  blinding,  but  the  sentence 
was  carried  out  with  such  brutahty  that  Bernhard 
died. 

Within  a  few  months  of  this  event  Hermengarda 
died,  and  her  death  was  regarded  by  the  king  as  a  Divine 
punishment  for  his  treatment  of  Bernhard.  He  sank 
into  a  condition   of  profound   melancholy  and   bitter 


U 


208 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Louis  and 
his  sons 


remorse,  and  talked  of  retiring  to  expiate  his  sin  in  a 
monastery.  To  rouse  him  from  this  state  his  ecclesi- 
astics  persuaded  him  to  marry  again.  He  selected  as 
his  new  consort  Judith,  daughter  of  Count  Welf  of  Alt- 
dorp.  Judith  was  a  beautiful,  able  and  ambitious  woman, 
who  soon  acquired  complete  mastery  over  the  unstable 
mind  of  her  husband.  In  822  her  son  Charles  the  Bald 
was  born,  and  with  him  begins  the  break-up  of  the 
Carolingian  Empire. 

Soon  after  the  birth  of  his  son,  Louis,  again  plunged 
into  melancholy  and  self-reproach,  unwisely  recalled  the 
ministers  whom  he  had  banished  at  the  beginning  of 
his  reign,  and  set  free  those  who  were  imprisoned  for 
their  share  in  Bernhard's  rising.  Not  content  with 
thus  surrounding  himself  with  implacable  enemies,  he 
determined  to  do  public  penance  at  Attigny,  near  Sois- 
sons,  for  his  real  and  supposed  sins.  The  public  self- 
abasement  of  the  Emperor,  who  subjected  himself  to 
the  most  humiUating  penances,  ahenated  from  him  the 
Frankish  nobles  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the 
rough  heartiness  and  masterful  rule  of  his  father.  The 
loyalty  of  the  Franks  to  their  sovereign  was  already 

undermined  when  a  fatal  step  let  loose  the  dogs  of  war 

and  plunged  the  Empire  into  fifty  years  of  contest. 
In  829,  when  Charles  the  Bald  was  seven  years  old, 

the  Emperor  determined  to  provide  him  with  a  kingdom. 

He  therefore  announced,  at  a  great  council  at  Worms, 

that  he  proposed  to  make  the  Duchy  of  Alemannia  into 

a  kingdom  for  his  youngest  son. 

The  Emperor's  second  marriage  had  been  resented  by 

bis  sons,  and  Judith  had  apparently  become  unpopular 


I 


THE  REIGN  OF  LOUIS  THE  PIOUS 


209 


throughout  the  Empire.  The  new  scheme  therefore 
drew  together  all  the  discontented  elements  in  the 
realm,  and  a  great  rising  was  organised  while  Louis 
was  engaged  in  subduing  a  rebellion  in  Brittany.  Pippin 
of  Aquetaine  marched  on  Paris  and  rallied  the  nobles 
of  Neustria,  while  Lothair  crossed  the  Alps  at  the  head 
of  a  great  army  of  Lombards.  Hemmed  in  at  Com- 
pi^gne,  Louis  was  obliged  to  surrender  and  was  im- 
prisoned by  his  sons,  while  Judith  was  forced  to  take 
the  veil  at  Poictiers.  Next  spring  a  great  gathering  was 
summoned  to  Nimuegen,  where  the  Austrasian  nobles, 
loyal  still  to  the  Emperor,  appeared  in  such  strong 
force  that  Lothair  was  glad  to  make  peace  and  to  appeal 
for  the  forgiveness  that  Louis  was  only  too  willing  to 
grant. 

But  the  interval  of  peace  was  of  short  duration.  In 
832  the  war  blazed  out  again,  and  this  time  all  three 
brothers  joined  against  their  father.  Louis'  reply  was 
to  declare  Pippin  and  Louis  deposed,  and  to  add  Aque- 
taine to  the  lands  allotted  to  Charles  the  Bald.  But 
while  the  Emperor  gathered  forces  to  enforce  this  new 
partition  Lothair,  who  throughout  these  contests 
showed  himself  the  most  violent  and  unscrupulous  of 
the  brothers,  led  a  great  army  from  Italy,  bringing  with 
him  Pope  Gregory  IV.,  who  was  completely  devoted 
to  his  interests.  It  was  on  the  celebrated  Liigenfeld 
{Field  of  lies)  that  the  armies  met.  To  avert  open  con- 
flict, Louis  agreed  to  negotiate  with  his  sons,  and  while 
the  Pope  went  to  and  fro  in  the  guise  of  a  mediator, 
the  loyalty  of  Louis'  army  was  undermined  by  secret 
intrigues,  so  that  it  rapidly  melted  away.  At  last  Louis 
14 


'I  i 


1 


210 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


I' 


i 


found  himself  completely  deserted,  and  with  his  wife 
and  child  was  once  more  compelled  to  surrender  to  his 
sons.  Judith  was  again  consigned  to  conventual  life  and 
the  Emperor  to  prison,  while  little  Charles,  protected 
by  his  youth,  was  sent  to  the  monastery  of  Pruym. 
Louis,  cut  off  from  all  intelhgence  about  wife  or  child, 
was  in  a  pitiable  state  of  misery  and  helplessness.  He 
was  at  length  dragged  from  prison  before  a  council  of 
Council  of  ecclesiastics  at  Compiegne  and  there  compelled  to  read 
CompiSgne  ^  j^^^  ^^^  humiliating  confession  of  sin  and  incom- 
petency and  submit  to  pubHc  degradation. 

But  this  humiliation  produced  a  reaction.  The 
loyalty  of  Northern  Germany  to  the  son  of  their  great 
king  was  aroused  by  the  spectacle,  and  a  great  Saxon 
and  Austrasian  army  marched  against  Lothair,  who 
was  compelled  to  flee  across  the  Alps,  where  many  of 
the  leaders  of  the  rebellion,  who  accompanied  his  army 
in  its  flight,  fell  victims  to  a  pestilence  that  men 
regarded  as  the  vengeance  of  heaven. 

Yet  Louis'  infatuation  still  persisted.  No  sooner 
was  peace  restored  than,  at  a  council  at  Cremieux, 
near  Lyons,  he  proposed  a  new  partition,  by  which 
Lothair  was  to  be  deprived  of  all  his  lands  except  Italy, 
and  the  confiscated  territories  added  to  the  dominions  of 
Charles.  War  was  averted  for  the  moment  by  a  great 
Danish  raid  on  the  Khine,  but  when  this  was  passed 
Louis  assembled  a  council  at  Aachen,  in  837,  and  there 
crowned  his  youngest  son  as  king,  not  only  of  the  lands 
already  promised  to  him,  but  also  of  some  lands  that 
were  in  the  dominions  of  Louis  of  Bavaria. 

Just  at  this  crisis  Pippin  of  Aquetaine  died,  and  Louis 


THE  REIGN  OF  LOUIS  THE  PIOUS 


211 


put  the  coping-stone  to  his  folly  by  ignoring  the  children 
of  the  late  king  and  transferring  Aquetaine  also  to 
Charles.  To  this  the  Aquetanians  rephed  by  pro- 
claiming Pippin,  eldest  son  of  their  late  king,  as  ruler 
of  Aquetaine. 

In  889  war  flared  up  in  every  part  of  the  Empire. 
But  now  Louis  succeeded  in  buying  the  support  of  his 
eldest  son,  by  promising  him  all  the  provinces  of  the 
Empire  except  Neustria  and  Aquetaine,  which  he  re- 
served for  Charles.  With  unexpected  vigour,  the  Em- 
peror himself  drove  young  Pippin  and  Louis  out  of  their 
dominions.  But  the  campaign  was  too  much  for  his 
enfeebled  health,  and  in  the  summer  of  840  he  died. 

His  reign  of  twenty-five  years  had  been  disastrous 
for  the  Empire.  By  his  self-abasement  he  had  under- 
mined the  respect  of  the  nobles  for  the  Imperial  office, 
while  he  had  encouraged  the  pretensions  of  the  great 
ecclesiastics  in  a  way  that  was  dangerous  to  the  welfare 
of  the  State.  His  rather  morbid  piety  and  narrow 
culture  were  ill-suited  to  the  needs  of  a  rough  and  iron 
age.  In  his  personal  character  he  seems  a  weaker 
Edward  the  Confessor;  in  his  struggles  with  his  sons 
he  reminds  us  of  our  own  Henry  II. ;  while  in  his 
alternations  of  imprisonment  and  restoration,  and  in  his 
subservience  to  a  wife  fighting  for  the  rights  of  her  son, 
he  resembles  the  last  Lancastrian  king,  Henry  VI. 


i\\ 


N 


Lotbair, 
840-855 


CHAPTEE  XXIII 

THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE 

n^HE  seventy  years  that  follow  the  death  of  Louis  the 
Pious  are  the  most  confused,  and  at  first  sight  the 
most  unprofitable,  in  all  the  annals  of  Europe.  The 
Empire  is  partitioned  and  repartitioned,  then  at  last 
broken  into  fragments,  every  one  of  which  seeks  to  live 
its  own  hfe.  No  unity  seems  left  in  Europe  at  all  ex- 
cept the  unity  of  a  common  ecclesiastical  organisation 
and  the  unity  of  a  common  danger. 

For  while  these  internal  rivalries  were  going  on,  the 
Norseman  was  burning  and  pillaging  along  all  the 
northern  rivers,  and  the  Saracen  was  planting  the  stan- 
dards of  the  prophet  on  the  shores  of  Sicily. 

Yet  under  this  confusion  Europe  was  taking  the 
shape  that  she  was  destined  to  retain  through  all  the 
history  that  followed.  The  Eomance  lands  of  the  west 
— Neustria  and  Aquetaine— were  gradually  drifting 
farther  from  the  Teutonic  lands  of  the  east— Austrasia, 
Franconia,  Saxony— and  between  grew  up  the  debatable 
lands— Burgundy  and  Lotharingia— which,  under  their 
later  names  of  Savoy,  Franche-Comt^,  Alsace,  Lorraine, 
Belgium,  have  ever  since  been  the  battle-ground  of  the 
two  great  peoples. 

The  death  of  Louis  left  Lothair  undisputed  emperor, 

212 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     213 

but  his  authority  was  scarcely  recognised  in  the  outlying 
kingdoms  of  Aquetaine,  Neustria  and  Bavaria.  Only 
through  war  could  he  hope  to  put  down  the  practical 
independence  of  his  brothers. 

The  first  result  of  his  accession  was  that  Louis  of 
Bavaria — Louis  the  German  as  he  came  to  be  called — 
made  common  cause  with  Charles  the  Bald  of  Neustria, 
while  Lothair  called  young  Pippin  and  his  Aquetanian 
army  to  his  help.     The  two  forces  met  at  the   great 
battle   of   Fontenay,  and  there  the  Austrasian  nobles 
who  followed  the  Emperor's  standard  perished,  as  the 
Scottish  nobles  perished  at  Flodden  Field.     Louis  and 
Charles  won  a  decisive  victory — a  victory  that  shattered 
for  ever  the  supremacy  of  Austrasia  and  left  the  eastern 
and  western  parts  of  the  Empire  free  to  fall  apart.     In 
the  following  spring  the  two  kings  renewed  their  alliance 
at  Strasburg,  where  the  famous  **oath  of  Strasburg'* 
was  taken,  by  Charles  in  the  **  teudisca  lingua,"  and  by 
Louis  in  the  '*  romana  lingua  " — the  first  beginnings  of 
the  languages  that  we  now  call  German  and  French — 
in  order  that  both  armies  might  understand  the  terms 
of  alliance.     The  two  brothers  then  marched  straight 
on  Aachen,  whence  Lothair  fled  to  Lyons.     At  length 
Lothair  consented  to  treat  with  his  brothers,  and  the 
Partition  of  Verdun   finally   severed  into  independent  Partition 
kingdoms  the  Empire  that  Charles  had  founded.     This  843  "^^  ""' 
treaty  was  a  decisive  indication  that  the  destiny  of  the 
Franks  was  fulfilled.     They  had  served  as  a  link  be- 
tween the  Romanised  lands  of  the  west  and  the  Saxons 
and  Bavarians  of  the  east.     But  now  the  link  had  been 
broken;  east  and  west  went  each  its  own  way;  and 


214  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Lothair  was  left  with  an  ill-compacted  strip  of  territory, 
reaching  from  his  northern  capital  at  Aachen  to  his 
southern  capital  at  Kome.     Though   he   retained  the 


PARTITION  of  VERDUN     843 


1^.\/.^cuJ»>sW>r*.QM*lV^V-^  ^ 


Kingdom  of  Charles  nmiD  Kingdom  of  Lotharozzi]  Kingdom  of  Louis  S2m 


Scale  L 


100 


200 


300 


400 


J  Engl. Miles 


name  of  emperor,  the  title  was  practically  meaningless, 
and  meaningless  it  remained  till  the  great  Otho  I. 
raised  it  from  the  dust  a  hundred  years  later  and  made 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE    215 


it  once  more  the  symbol  of  authority  in  Church  and 
State. 

For  ten  years  (848-858)  peace  was  kept  between  the 
three  brothers.  Each  had  enough  to  do  in  defending 
his  frontiers  against  the  ceaseless  ravages  of  the  Norse- 
men, who  now  poured  as  a  devouring  host  over  Northern 
Europe.  But  in  853  a  fresh  war  began  between  Charles 
and  the  people  of  Aquetaine,  aided  by  his  brother  Louis. 
Little  fighting  actually  took  place,  and  Louis  soon  re- 
turned to  his  own  kingdom.  In  the  following  year 
Lothair  died,  and  his  [three  sons,  after  the  approved 
fashion,  divided  their  father's  kingdom,  Louis,  the 
eldest,  taking  Italy,  where  he  ruled  well,  while  Lothair 
acquired  Austrasia,  which  derived  from  him  its  later 
name  of  Lotharingia,  and  Burgundy  was  allotted  to  the 
youngest,  Charles. 

At  this  point  we  plunge  into  a  confused  story,  as  the 
family  feud  broadens  with  the  rise  of  a  new  generation. 
Lothair's  three  sons  followed  in  their  uncles'  footsteps 
and  quarrelled  about  their  inheritance.  Then  Louis 
the  German,  the  ablest  of  the  three  sons  of  Louis 
the  Pious,  divided  up  his  territories  among  his  three 
sons,  Carloman,  Louis  and  Charles  the  Fat.  They 
showed  their  gratitude  by  keeping  the  kingdom  in 
perpetual  disturbance  for  twelve  years  with  constant 
rebellions. 

Meanwhile  Charles  the  Bald  was  dividing  his  time  Charles  the 
between  schemes  for  enlarging  his  dominions  at  the 
cost  of  his  nephews  and  futile  efforts  to  hold  back  the 
Viking  hosts  that  were  making  West  Francia  almost 
a  desert.     In  867  Lothair  II.,  who  had  just  ended  a 


216 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


i| 


long  struggle  of  ten  years  with  the  Pope  by  the  abandon- 
ment of  a  bigamous  union  into  which  he  had  entered, 
died,  and  Louis  the  German  and  Charles  both  fell  upon 
his  Lotharingian  lands  like  birds  of  prey.  The  result 
was  another  partition  (870) ,  by  which  Lotharingia  was 
divided  along  the  line  of  the  Meuse. 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  Louis  II.,  five  years  later, 
gave  Charles  the  Bald  an  opportunity  of  showing  his 
usual  unscrupulous  greed.  Hurrying  into  Italy,  he 
induced  the  Pope  to  crown  him  as  Emperor.  Just  at 
this  time  Louis  the  German  died,  after  a  reign  of  sixty 
years,  during  which  he  had  done  much  to  develop  the 
national  German  feeUng  in  his  kingdom.  He  may 
fairly  be  called  the  first  king  of  Germany. 

As  usual  Charles  the  Bald  attempted  to  seize  part 
of  the  lands  of  his  brother,  but  he  was  completely 
defeated  by  Louis  of  Saxony  at  Andemach.  Soon 
after,  he  crossed  the  Alps  on  a  visit  to  Italy,  and  there 
died,  in  a  hut  at  the  foot  of  the  Mont  Cenis  pass. 
He  was  a  cowardly  and  unprincipled  king. 

For  two  years  his  son  Louis  the  Stammerer  strove 
manfully  to  make  headway  against  the  Viking  raiders, 
and  on  his  death,  in  879,  his  two  elder  sons  succeeded 
as  joint  rulers  of  his  kingdom. 

In  the  same  year  the  first  breach  was  made  in  the 
Carolingian  succession  by  the  successful  efforts  of  Boso, 
an  ambitious  Burgundian  count,  who  had  married 
the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Louis  II.,  to  make 
himself  independent  sovereign  of  the  valley  of  the 
Rhone. 

Within  a  few  years  most  of  the  rulers  of  the  Caro- 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     217 

lingian  house  died,  and  the  most  worthless  of  them  all, 
Charles  the  Fat,  youngest  son  of  Louis  the  German,  Charles 
succeeded  successively  to  Italy,  Germany  and  West  Emperor 
Francia.  But  three  years  of  incompetent  rule  served 
to  undermine  whatever  loyalty  was  still  felt  for  the 
Carolingian  dynasty,  and  West  Francia  and  Germany 
alike  threw  off  the  yoke  of  the  degenerate  namesake  of 
the  great  Emperor,  who  died  in  the  following  year.  In 
Germany  Arnulf,  Duke  of  Carinthia,  a  natural  son  of 
Charles'  elder  brother  Carloman,  was  chosen  king, 
while  in  West  Francia  Odo,  the  heroic  defender  of 
Paris,  was  raised  to  the  vacant  throne,  and  thus,  for 
the  time,  another  breach  was  made  in  the  continuity  of 
the  Carolingian  succession.  Charles  the  Simple,  the 
only  surviving  representative  of  the  West  Frankish 
Carolingians,  now  a  child  of  eight  years  old,  was  sent  * 
to  England  for  safety. 

But  the  deposition  of  Charles  the  Fat  gave  the 
signal  for  a  further  disintegration  of  the  Empire.  In 
the  western  part  of  what  we  now  call  Switzerland 
Count  Rudolph,  a  nephew  by  marriage  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  set  up  as  king  of  Upper  or  Cisjurane  Burgundy. 
Northern  Italy,  which  was  now  divided  into  the  four 
great  Margravates  of  Ivrea,  Friuli,  Turin  and  Tuscany, 
was  left  to  be  fought  for  between  Berengar  of  Friuli 
and  Wido  of  Spoleto. 

During  the  thirty  years  that  follow,  each  of  these 
hve  kingdoms  has  an  independent  history  of  its  own. 
Of  Upper  Burgundy  nothing  need  be  said,  for  Eudolph's 
Itahan  ambitions  lie  just  outside  our  period.  In  Lower 
Burgundy  or  Provence  Louis  succeeded  his  father,  Boso, 


218 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     219 


Arnulf, 

887-899 


in  887,  and  governed  peacefully  till  he  was  lured  to  his 
doom  in  Italy  twelve  years  later. 

In  Germany  Arnulf  made  splendid,  and  partially 
successful,  attempts  to  restore  order.  The  other  kings 
in  Western  Europe  gave  a  shadowy  recognition  to  his 
supremacy,  even  though  he  had  not  received  the  Im- 
perial crown.  In  891  he  was  able  to  do  an  important 
service  to  Europe  by  winning  a  great  victory  over  the 
Norsemen  at  Louvain — a  victory  that  practically  ended 
their  raids  on  the  Upper  Khine. 

From  the  western  frontier  Arnulf  then  turned  to  the 
East,  where  the  Slavs  were  in  rebellion  and  devastating 
the  frontier  lands.  To  keep  these  in  check  Arnulf 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  Suatopluk,  the  Christian 
Prince  of  Moravia,  to  whom  he  granted  the  overlordship 
of  Bohemia,  and  who  became  sponsor  to  Arnulf 's  natural 
son  Zwentibold.  But  before  long  ancient  enmities 
reasserted  themselves,  and  Suatopluk  rose  in  rebellion. 
The  incident  is  of  interest  chiefly  because  it  brings  us 
for  the  first  time  face  to  face  with  the  Magyars,  with 
whom  Arnulf  made  an  alliance  against  the  Moravians. 
Pressed  thus  on  both  frontiers,  the  Moravian  prince  was 
glad  to  make  peace. 

Having  thus  pacified  Germany  Arnulf  passed,  in  894, 
into  Italy,  to  be  recalled  by  an  attack  made  upon 
his  dominions  by  Odo  of  West  Francia.  In  896  he 
again  crossed  the  Alps,  marched  upon  Eome,  out  of 
which  he  drove  the  partisans  of  the  Spoletan  faction, 
and  was  crowned  as  Emperor  by  the  Pope.  But  he 
dared  not  stay  long  enough  in  Italy  to  establish  any 
effective  authority  there,  and  with  his  withdrawal  the 


country  sank  back  into  sixty  years  of  disturbed  in- 
dependence, till  another  German  king,  Otho  the  Great, 
came  to  claim  the  Imperial  crown. 

The  closing  years  of  Arnulf's  reign  were  troubled  by 
the  disloyalty  of  his  son  Zwentibold,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed as  Duke  of  Lotharingia,  and  whose  turbulent 
misrule  there  led  the  nobles  of  the  province  to  appeal 
to  the  West  Frankish  king  for  protection.  Arnulf  was 
able  to  drive  out  the  invaders  without  any  actual  fight- 
ing, but  in  the  following  year  (899)  he  died.  Zwenti- 
bold continued  to  rule  Lotharingia  for  a  year  longer,  and 
then  died  in  battle  against  his  rebellious  subjects,  and 
Lotharingia  passed  for  a  time  into  the  hands  of  the  West 
Frankish  king,  who  appointed  Eeginar  Long-neck,  the 
leader  of  the  rebels,  as  duke. 

In  Germany  Arnulf  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Louis  Louif? the 
the  Child,  a  boy  of  seven  years  old,  in  whose  name  Otho,  899-911 
Duke  of  Saxony,  and  Hatto,  Archbishop  of  Mainz, 
carried  on  the  government.  The  whole  eastern  frontier 
of  Germany  was  devastated  during  these  years  by  the 
Magyars,  and  internally  Germany  was  divided  between 
the  party  of  Hatto  and  a  body  of  nobles,  of  whom  Adal- 
bert of  Babenburg,  Duke  of  Franconia,  was  the  leader, 
who  took  up  arms  to  deliver  the  realm  from  the  tyranny 
of  ecclesiastics.  Adalbert  was  treacherously  seized  and 
executed  by  Hatto,  and  Conrad  of  Rothenburg,  nephew 
of  ( one  of  Hatto's  chief  supporters,  Eudolf,  Bishop  of 
Wurzburg,  was  made  Duke  of  Franconia.  Hatto's 
treachery  caused  his  name  to  be  execrated  in  Germany, 
and  hence  arose  the  story  of  how  he  burnt  the  peasants 
who  came  to  ask  him  for  com  in  a  time  of  famine,  and 


i  i 


Ir 


220 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     221 


Conrad  of 

Franconia, 

911-918 


West 
Francia 


how  the  rats  (or  mice)  who  came  out  of  the  burning 
barn  pursued  him  even  into  the  tower  of  Bingen  in  the 
middle  of  the  Rhine  and  devoured  him. 

In  911  the  CaroHngian  line  became  extinct  in  Ger- 
many by  the  death  of  Louis  the  Child,  and  the  nobles 
of  the  kingdom,  assembled  at  Forchheim,  elected  Conrad 
of  Franconia  as  king.  But  the  final  break  in  the  Caro- 
lingian  succession  meant  the  practical  end  of  kingship, 
for  a  time,  in  Germany.  Under  a  king  who  was  as  one 
of  themselves,  with  no  claims  of  birth  to  raise  him  above 
his  fellow-nobles,  the  great  dukes  became  in  all  but  name 
independent  sovereigns.  Erchanger  in  Suabia,  Arnulf 
in  Bavaria,  and  Henry,  son  of  Duke  Otho,  in  Saxony, 
waged  war  against  Conrad  without  scruple,  and  though 
the  king  gained  a  transient  success  now  and  then  he 
came  no  nearer  to  any  real  assertion  of  royal  authority. 
After  a  troubled  reign  of  seven  years,  he  died  in  918.  His 
last  act  was  to  assemble  his  councillors  and  advise  them 
to  offer  the  crown  to  his  great  rival,  Henry,  Duke  of 
Saxony. 

The  accession  of  Henry  the  Fowler  opens  a  new 
chapter  in  the  history  of  Germany.  The  sceptre  of 
German  supremacy  had  now  passed  finally  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Franks  into  those  of  the  more  purely  Teu- 
tonic people  farther  east,  and  when  the  son  of  Henry 
established  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  in  imitation  of  the 
work  of  Charles  the  Great,  Magdeburg,  not  Aachen, 
was  its  northern  capital. 

The  reign  of  Odo  in  West  Francia  resembled  in 
some  respects  that  of  Conrad  in  Germany.  He  was 
surrounded  with  nobles  whose  territories  had  gradually 


become  hereditary,  some  of  whom  could  put  into  the 
field  as  large  an  army  as  the  king.  The  first  few  years 
of  the  new  reign  were  exclusively  devoted  to  driving  back 
the  Norsemen,  but  as  soon  as  this  task  was  accomphshed 
the  great  nobles  of  the  kingdom  began  to  plot  against 
Odo,  and  brought  back  Charles  the  Simple  from  Eng- 
land that  they  might  set  him  up  as  a  puppet-king,  under 
whom  they  might  enjoy  practical  independence.  Six 
years  of  confused  war  followed,  ending  in  the  death  of 
Odo  in  898.  His  brother  Robert  made  peace  with 
Charles,  and  in  return  for  the  acknowledgment  of  his 
royal  title  received  from  him  the  **  Duchy  of  France," 
a  new  district  carved  out  of  the  heart  of  the  kingdom 
with  Paris  as  its  capital. 

The  origin  of  the  new  family  that  became  thus  the 
most  powerful  in  the  kingdom  is  obscure.  Robert  the 
Strong  first  appears  as  a  Count  at  Angers,  carrying  on 
with  success  the  local  war  with  the  Norse  invaders. 
He  was  appointed  by  Charles  the  Bald  in  8G1  as  de- 
fender of  Paris,  and  on  his  death  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  Odo  (or  Eudes).  The  great  siege  of  Paris  in  885 
made  Odo  famous  and  secured  his  election  as  king  on 
the  deposition  of  Charles  the  Fat.  From  this  time  the 
Counts  of  Paris  became  the  most  dangerous  rivals  of  the 
restored  Carolingian  kings,  till,  a  hundred  years  later, 
the  death  of  the  last  direct  Carolingian  heir  left  the 
throne  of  West  Francia  vacant  for  Hugh  of  Paris  to 
claim. 

But  the  West  Prankish  CaroHngians  were  by  no 
means  faineant  kings,  as  the  last  of  the  Merovingians 
had  been.     Charles  the  Simple,  though  he  gained  his 


222 


THE  DAWN  OF  MKDIJEVAL  EUROPE 


Italy, 
889-924 


nickname  from  his  too  trustful  attitude  towards  his  great 
vassals,  was  a  vigorous  and  ambitious  ruler,  and  though 
he  was  compelled  to  cede  the  valley  of  the  Lower  Seine 
to  the  Northmen,  he  succeeded  in  acquiring  Lotharingia 
from  the  German  kingdom.  After  912  West  Francia 
enjoyed  nearly  ten  years  of  peace  under  his  rule.  After 
that,  civil  war  broke  out  again,  and  though  Kobert  of 
Paris,  the  leader  of  the  rebellion,  was  slain  at  Soissons, 
Charles  was  entrapped  the  same  year  by  one  of  his 
vassals,  Herbert  of  Vermandois,  and  ended  his  days 
in  prison  at  Peronne. 

In  Italy  the  ninth  century  is  chiefly  notable  for  the 
long  struggle  in  the  South  against  the  Saracens,  which 
will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.     After  the  deposition 
of  Charles  the  Fat  two  claimants  arose  to  dispute  the 
throne  of  Italy.     One  of  these  was  Wido,   Duke   of 
Spoleto,  who  also  attempted  to  secure  the   throne  of 
West  Francia,  or  at  least  of  Burgundy ;  the  other  was 
Berengar,  Margrave  of  FriuH.     Berengar  came  to  an 
arrangement  with  his  rival  by  which  he  agreed  to  sup- 
port him  in  his  attempt  in  Burgundy  in  return  for  the 
renunciation  of  his  claims  in  Italy.     When,  however, 
Wido's  candidature  for  the  West  Prankish  throne  failed, 
he  returned  to  Italy  to  make  war  on  Berengar,  with  the 
support  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  Margrave  of  Tuscany. 
Berengar  had  been  crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of  Milan, 
and  the  Pope,  Stephen  V.,  therefore  dechned  to  recognise 
his  claims  and  crowned  Wido,  not  only  as  king  of  Italy 
but  also  as  Emperor  (891).      After  four  years  of  war 
Berengar  retired  to  his  margravate  and  Wido  obliged 
the  new  Pope,  Formosus,  to  ci*own  his  son  Lambert  as 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     223 

joint-emperor  with  him.  Then,  on  Berengar's  invi- 
tation, Arnulf  descended  into  Italy,  and  appeared  in 
896  before  the  walls  of  Rome.  Wido's  wife  defended  the 
city  for  some  days,  then  Arnulf  stormed  the  *'  Leonine 
City,"  and  was  welcomed  by  Pope  Formosus  as  a  de- 

Margravates  of  Northern  Italy  IX  Century 


liverer  from  the  Spoletan  yoke.  But  ill-health  and  the 
pressure  of  German  afifairs  obliged  Arnulf  to  recross  the 
Alps,  and  as  soon  as  his  back  was  turned  the  Spoletan 
cause  revived. 

Pope  Formosus  having  died  immediately  after  Arnulf 's 
departure,  the  anti-German  party  elected  Boniface  VII., 


I 


n 


224 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


then,  on  his  death  fifteen  days  later,  Stephen  VI. 
Stephen  had  the  body  of  Formosus  disinterred,  clothed 
in  papal  robes  and  brought  to  trial  before  a  council  of 
Koman  ecclesiastics.  Formosus  was  condemned  and 
his  body  flung  into  the  Tiber,  whence  it  was  rescued 
and  reinterred  when  a  new  Pope  had  reversed  the 
sentence  of  his  predecessor. 

The  death  of  Wido  and  of  Lambert  brought  the 
Spoletan  Empire  to  an  end,  and  Berengar  now  became 
undisputed  master  of  Northern  Italy,  while  in  Kome  a 
series  of  phantom  Popes  rose  and  fell  as  one  or  another 
faction  prevailed.     A  year  later  (901)  the  enemies  of 
Berengar  found   a   new  candidate  for  the  Empire  in 
Louis  of  Provence,  who  reached  Eome  and  was  there 
crowned  by  the  Pope.     Berengar  chased  him  out  of 
Italy,  but  in  905  he  returned  and  won  some  successes, 
only  to  be  finally  captured  and  blinded  by  Berengar. 
Louis  TAveugle,  as  he  was  now  called,  returned  to  Prov- 
ence, and  for  a  few  years  Berengar  ruled  unchallenged. 
In  915    Pope  John  X.   secured  his  help  against   the 
Saracens  by  offering  him  the  Imperial  crown.     He  did 
good  service  in  rooting  out  the  Saracen  colony  on  the 
GarigHano,  and  ruled  with  reasonable  success  till  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  when  Eudolph  of  Upper  Burgundy 
conceived  the  idea  of  securing  for  himself  Italy  and  the 
Imperial  crown.    While  besieged  in  Verona,  in  924, 
Berengar  was  slain  by  some  of  his  own  followers. 

Through  all  these  contests  the  Margrave  of  Tuscany 
played  the  part  of  kingmaker,  led  by  his  imperious  wife 
Bertha,  daughter  of  King  Lothair.  While  alternately 
setting  up  and  deserting  emperors,  Adalbert  of  Tuscany 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  CAROLINGIAN  EMPIRE     225 

also  aspired  to  control  the  Papacy,  which  was  rapidly 
sinking  into  an  abyss  of  degradation  unparalleled  in  its 
history.     Altogether   the  year  918  shows  us   the   two 

WESTERN  EUROPE  IN  900  A .  D. 


'Sv^lqo^ 


Scale    I L 


100  so    0 


100 


200 


1  Engl. Miles 


}00 


great  institutions  that  had  led  the  advance  of  Europe  a 
hundred  years  before — the  Empire  and  the  Papacy — at 
the  lowest  condition  of  impotence  and  discredit.  Nearly 
half  a  century  was  to  pass  before  they  began  to  be  lifted 
up  again  by  a  new  intervention  from  the  north. 


15 


THE  ISrORSEMEN,  SARACENS  AND  MAGYARS 


227 


CHAPTEE  XXIV 

THE  NORSEMEN,  THE  SARACENS  AND  THE  MAGYARS 


w 


HILE   the  struggles   among  the  descendants  of 
Charles  the  Great  were  helping  on  the  disintegra- 
tion of  his  Empire,  the  whole  fabric  of  civilisation  in 
Western  Em-ope  was  shaken   by  attacks  from  north, 
south  and  east.     From  the  north  came  the  Norsemen, 
ravaging  and  plundering  along  every  river  valley  up 
which  their  long  ships  could  sail ;  from  the  south  came 
the    Saracens,  the   pirates   of   the    Mediterranean,   to 
challenge  the  control   of   the  Byzantine  Empire  over 
the  lands  in  Southern  Italy  that  still  remamed  m  its 
possession ;  and  towards  the  end  of  the  ninth  century 
a  foe  more  fierce  and  implacable  still  appeared  on  the 
eastern  frontier  in  the  Magyars  or  Hungarians, 
The  At  what  period  Scandinavia  became  peopled  by  men 

Norsemen  ^^  Teutonic  race  we  do  not  know.  But  we  know  that 
at  the  time  when  other  Teutonic  tribes  were  moving 
south,  a  hardy  race  of  the  same  stock  was  wresting  a 
precarious  liveHhood  from  the  fiords  and  forests  of 
Norway,  Sweden  and  Denmark.  Until  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century  the  hfe  of  these  village  communities 
went  on  with  little  change ;  after  that  the  growth  of 
population  and  the  rise  of  larger  political  groups  drove 
the  more  adventurous  spirits  to  a  hfe  of  piracy.     From 

226 


the  vies  or  fiords  from  which  they  came,  these  daring 
seamen  were  known  as  Vikings.  Their  earliest  raids 
were  made  on  England  and  Ireland  at  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century.  Their  first  attack  on  the  Empire  of 
Charles  was  in  799,  when  they  raided  Aquetaine.  But, 
having  once  discovered  the  wealth  and  weakness  of  the 
Empire,  their  attacks  grew  more  and  more  frequent. 
During  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Pious  they  ravaged  the 
coast  of  Frisia,  and  in  835  sacked  and  burnt  the  great 
city  of  Utrecht.  In  the  following  year  Antwerp  shared 
the  same  fate,  and  in  887  they  penetrated  up  the  Khine 
as  far  as  Nimuegen. 

But  Ireland  suffered  more  severely  at  this  period.  Attacks  on 
With  its  tribal  system,  which  prevented  effective  re-  ^^*" 
sistance,  and  its  rich  monasteries  lying  undefended  near 
the  coast,  it  offered  a  tempting  prey  to  the  Norwegian 
adventurers  who  poured  across  the  seas  to  plunder  and 
ravage.  Ultimately  a  number  of  Norse  towns  grew  up 
along  the  shore,  from  which  the  Vikings  carried  on  con- 
stant war  with  the  native  Irish. 

In  England  Danish  raids  were  driven  off  for  a  time,  England 
and  it  was  not  till  850  that  **  the  heathen  army  "  wintered 
for  the  first  time  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet.     After  that  year 
England  had  no  rest  from  their  attacks. 

Excepting  Ireland,  where  the  Northmen  almost  Franda 
destroyed  the  civilisation  of  the  country,  no  part  of 
Europe  suffered  more  than  West  Francia  and  Aquetaine 
— the  two  provinces  that  make  up  modern  France. 
Easily  navigable  rivers  like  the  Seine  and  the  Loire 
carried  the  ships  of  the  Vikings  into  the  heart  of  the 
country,    where    undefended    cities    and    monasteries 


it\ 


228  THE  DiWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

afforded  rich  plunder.  Long  before  any  considerable 
armed  force  could  be  got  together  to  oppose  them,  they 
had  done  their  work  of  destruction  and  were  away  with 

their  spoil. 

In  841  they  sailed  up  the  Seine  and  burnt  Kouen ;  a 
little  later  they  destroyed  Nantes,  on  the  Loire.     The 
internal  dissensions  of  the  CaroHngians  served  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Vikings,  who  were  actually  invited  mto 
Aquetaine  by  young  Pippin  as  auxiharies  in  his  war 
with  Charles  the  Bald.     In  845  they  even  plundered 
Paris  under  the  eyes  of  the  king,  who  was  encamped  on 
the  heights  of  Montmartre.     Charles  the  Bald  adopted 
the  cowardly  expedient  of  buying  them  off  from  time  to 
time— a  plan  that  only  gave  temporary  rehef  at  the  cost 
of  greater  injury  afterwards.      In  847  Bordeaux,  the 
greatest  city  of  Aquetaine,  was  betrayed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Vikings  and  became  a  tributary  city  under  a 
Norse  chieftain,  Jarl  Oscar. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the  districts 
harried  and  towns  sacked  by  the  Northmen  during  this 
period.     Sir  Francis  Palgrave  gives  some  idea  of  the 
extent  of  their  ravages :  *'  Take  the  map  and  cover  with 
vermihon  the  provinces,  districts  and  shores  which  the 
Northmen  visited,  as  a  record  of  each  invasion,  the 
colouring  will  have  to  be  repeated  more  than  ninety 
times  successively  before  you  arrive  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  dynasty  of  Charles  the  Great.      Furthermore, 
mark  by  the  usual  symbol  of  war,  two  crossed  swords, 
the  locaHties  where  battles  were  fought  by  the  pirates, 
where  they  wer^  defeated  or  triumphant,  or  where  they 


THE  NORSEMEN,  SARACENS  AND  MAGYARS         229 

pillaged,  burned,  or  destroyed,  and  the  valleys  and  the 
banks  of  the  Elbe,  Khine  and  Moselle,  Scheldt,  Meuse, 
Somme  and  Seine,  Loire,  Garonne  and  Adour,  and  all 
the  coasts  and  coast  lands  between  estuary  and  estuary, 
all  the  countries  between  river  and  streams,  will  appear 
bristling  as  with  chevaux  de  frise.'* 

About  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  a  new  chapter  Scandi- 
opens  in  the  history  of  Scandinavia.  In  Denmark,  850^*  ^^^ 
Norway  and  Sweden  the  local  independence  of  tribal 
chiefs  was  overthrown  by  adventurers  who  succeeded 
in  establishing  themselves  as  kings  of  the  whole  country. 
Gorm  the  Old  became  king  of  Denmark,  and  Eric  of 
Sweden,  while  Harald  Harfagr  won  for  himself  the 
throne  of  Norway. 

The  loss  of  local  independence,  and  the  increasing 
burden  of  taxation  involved  in  a  more  settled  system  of 
government,  led  to  a  change  in  the  character  of  the 
Northmen's  inroads.  Hitherto  they  had  come  to 
plunder  and  depart,  only  establishing  at  the  mouth  of 
the  rivers  forts  to  which  they  could  retire  with  their 
plunder;  but  now  they  began  to  migrate  southwards 
and  westwards  as  permanent  settlers,  as  the  other  Teu- 
tonic peoples  had  done  centuries  before. 

Within  a  short  time  they  had  established  themselves  Norse 
in  the  whole  of  Northern  and  Eastern  England,  and '""^^""""^ 
their  title  was  recognised  by  the  Peace  of  Wedmore  in 
878.  They  also  founded  a  Norse  kingdom  in  the 
Orkneys  and  Shetlands,  under  the  nominal  suzerainty  of 
Norway,  and  planted  colonies  along  the  western  coast  of 
Scotland.     At  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  they  reached 


230  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

Iceland,  then  almost  an  uninhabited  country,  and  there 
they  settled  in  little  communities,  far  from  the  disturb- 
ances of  European  contest. 

At  about  the  same  time  a  Swedish  chief  Euric  accepted 
an  invitation  from  the  Slavonic  inhabitants  of  Kussia  to 
come  and  rule  them,  and  a  dynasty  of  Swedish  princes 
began  in  Eussia.  Early  in  the  tenth  century  the 
Byzantine  emperors  also  invited  some  of  these  sturdy 
warriors  to  Constantinople,  where  they  formed  the 
Varangian  guard,  the  Imperial  bodyguard  among  whose 
privileges  was  that  of  plundering  the  palace  on  the  death 

of  the  emperor. 

While  the  Vikings  were  occupied  with  the  conquest 
of  Northern  England,  the  coasts  of  France  and  Germany 
enjoyed  a  brief  respite,  but  after  880  the  attacks  of  the 
Northmen    were  renewed   with  redoubled  vigour.     In 
that  year  a  great  battle  was  fought  near  Hamburg,  which 
ended  in  a  disastrous  defeat  of  the  Frankish  and  Saxon 
army  by  the  invaders.     At  the  same  time  another  de- 
tachment of  the  enemy  established  itself  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Scheldt.     Next  year  they  were  attacked  by  the 
West  Frankish   king,  Louis  III.,  who  won  the  only 
important   victory   ever  won   over   the   Northmen   on 
Neustrian  soil,  at   Saucourt.     The  winter  of  881  was 
spent  in  harrying  all  the  cities  of  Austrasia,  including 
the  great  city  of  Aachen  itself,  which  they  plundered 
and  partially  destroyed.     In  the  spring,  Charles  the  Fat 
gathered  a  great  army  and  marched  against  the  invaders, 
but  when  face  to  face  with  them  he  made  a  treaty  by 
which  they  were  allowed  to  withdraw  unmolested  with 
their  plunder  and  occupy  a  district  at  the  mouth  of  the 


THE  NORSEMEN,  SARACENS  AND  MAGYARS  231 

Ehine,  on  condition  that  their  leader  did  homage  and 
was  baptised.  Four  years  later  he  was  treacherously 
murdered  by  Charles'  orders  and  his  followers  dispersed. 

From  the  Ehine  the  centre  of  Norse  activity  shifted  to  The  siege 

of  P&i*is 

the  Seine,  where  already,  in  861,  Charles  the  Bald  had  885,  886 
appointed  Eobert  the  Strong  as  count  of  a  new  march 
which  included  Paris  and  the  neighbouring  district. 
Fifteen  years  later  the  half-mythical  hero  EoUo  the 
Ganger  first  appeared  in  West  Francia,  and  in  885 
the  Northmen  laid  siege  to  Paris,  which  was  defended 
successfully  by  Odo,  son  of  old  Eobert  the  Strong,  and 
Gozelin  the  bishop.  Forty  thousand  Vikings  are  said 
to  have  beset  the  city  for  nearly  a  year.  At  length 
Charles  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  great  army,  but  only 
to  make  terms  with  the  enemy,  to  whom  he  offered  a 
bribe  of  700  lb.  of  silver  and  the  right  to  plunder  Bur- 
gundy, which  had  repudiated  his  authority  and  set  up 
Boso  as  king.  It  was  this  disgraceful  treaty  that  led  to 
the  fall  of  Charles  the  Fat  and  the  election  of  Odo  in 
his  stead. 

After  this  the  Northmen  seem  to  have  concentrated  Foundation 
their  efforts  on  the  task  of  making  themselves  completely  mandy,  9ii 
masters  of  the  valley  of  the  Seine  almost  up  to  the  very 
gates  of  Paris.  At  last,  in  911,  Charles  the  Simple,  fol- 
lowing the  policy  of  Alfred  in  England,  granted  to  the 
Viking  chief  Eollo  all  the  land  from  the  sea  to  the  river 
Epte,  with  the  hand  of  his  daughter  Gisela,  on  condition 
of  his  accepting  baptism  and  doing  homage — the  latter 
requirement  being  fulfilled  by  deputy.  The  Norman 
chroniclers  of  a  later  time  record  how  the  soldier  chosen 
to  kiss  the  foot  of  the  king  in  token  of  vassalage  per- 


232 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


The 

Saracens  in 
Sicily 


formed  his  task  so  rudely  that  he  overturned  the  royal 
seat  backward.  The  story  of  the  settlement  of  Nor- 
mandy, after  the  Treaty  of  Clair-sur-Epte,  belongs  to 
the  period  treated  in  the  next  volume. 

While  Northern  Europe  was  devastated  by  the  raids 
of  the  Northmen  the  lands  of  the  south  were  passing 


NORTHERN    FRANCE 


Scale    L^ 


10    0 


ri.E"6'M" 


under  the  sway  of  the  Moslem  power.  The  Saracens 
were  invited  into  Sicily  by  a  Sicilian  governor 
Euphemius,  who  was  in  rebelhon  against  the  Emperor 
Michael.  When  his  rising  was  put  down,  he  fled  to 
North  Africa,  whence  he  returned  with  a  vast  horde 
of  Arabian  and  Moorish  followers  of  the  prophet,  who, 
under  their  fierce  leader  Ased,  after  sweeping  away  the 
Imperial  army,  marched  to  besiege  Syracuse.  Disease 
then  broke  out  in  their  ranks,  and  a  fresh  army  from 


„t^t.^^.  —-^TiirfniinBiiteiriBH 


THE  NORSEMEN,  SARACENS  AND  MAGYARS        233 

Constantinople  drove  them  back.  For  a  moment  the 
prospects  of  the  Imperial  cause  revived,  but  a  fresh 
force  of  Africans  seized  Palermo,  while  another  party 
relieved  the  original  force  and  defeated  the  Imperial 
army. 

The  Emperor,  involved  in  war  in  the  East,  was  un- 
able to  do  much  for  the  province  of  Sicily,  and  though 
the  Byzantine  generals  stubbornly  contested  the  Moslem 
advance,  they  were  gradually  driven  into  the  south- 
eastern corner  of  the  island.  The  conquerors  then 
prepared  to  carry  their  arms  across  to  the  mainland, 
whither  Kadelchis,  one  of  two  rival  candidates  for  the 
Duchy  of  Beneventum,  invited  them  in  840.  His  rival 
sent  to  Crete  to  invite  a  body  of  Saracens  to  come  to  his 
aid.  For  nearly  ten  years  the  whole  of  Southern  Italy 
was  devastated  by  Moslem  hordes,  who  in  846  reached 
the  very  walls  of  Kome,  and  sacked  the  churches  outside 
the  city. 

The  greatness  of  the  danger  brought  deliverance.  Victories  of 
Louis,  son  of  Lothair,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  as  867-87f  ' 
Emperor  in  844,  now  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Italian  forces,  and  with  the  help  of  Pope  Leo  IV.  organ- 
ised a  great  campaign  against  the  infidels.  In  849  an 
Italian  force,  under  the  personal  command  of  the  Pope, 
won  a  great  victory  by  land  and  sea  at  Ostia.  In  the 
following  year  Louis,  having  settled  the  dispute  between 
the  rival  Dukes  of  Beneventum,  began  to  prepare  for  a 
crusade  against  the  Moslems,  who  had  made  their 
capital  at  Bari.  For  a  long  time  disunion  among  his 
own  followers  delayed  the  Emperor's  success,  but  in 
867  he  began  to  drive  back  the  invaders,  and  in  871, 


'5 


234 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Byzantine 
interven- 
tion, 875 


with  the  help  of  a  Byzantine  fleet  lent  for  a  time  by 
the  Emperor  Basil,  he  captured  Bari,  the  garrison  of 
which  he  put  to  the  sword. 

The  capture  and  imprisonment  of  the  Emperor  by 
the  Duke  of  Beneventum,  who  seems  to  have  feared 
that  he  was  growing  dangerously  powerful,  was  followed 
by  a  new  Moslem  invasion,  which  the  Emperor,  set 
free  by  his  treacherous  host,  drove  off  in  August,  872. 
Louis  had  already  begun  to  prepare  for  a  campaign  for 
the  recovery  of  Calabria  and  Sicily  when  he  died,  in 
875.  Of  all  the  later  Carolingians,  he  inherited  most  of 
the  quahties  that  had  raised  the  dynasty  to  greatness, 
and  his  premature  death  was  a  fatal  blow  to  the  king- 
dom of  Italy. 

Where  the  Western  Emperor  had  failed,  the  Eastern 
Emperor  was  destined  to  succeed.  Basil  sent  a  splendid 
fleet  in  875  to  recover  Southern  Italy  for  the  Empire, 
and  within  ten  years  the  Saracens  were  driven  completely 
out  of  the  peninsula.  For  a  time  Beneventum  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  till  Wido  of 
Spoleto  recovered  it  in  894. 

But  while  the  Empire  was  reasserting  itself  in 
Southern  Italy,  Syracuse,  the  last  Christian  stronghold  in 
Sicily,  was  stormed  by  the  Moslems  in  878,  after  nearly 
a  year's  siege.  By  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century 
all  Sicily  was  under  Saracen  rule. 

Farther  north  the  territories  of  Capua,  Naples  and 
Gaeta  suffered  much  from  Saracen  raids,  and  for  thirty 
years  a  Saracen  colony  occupied  the  banks  of  the  Gar- 
ighano.  It  was  in  vain  that  successive  Popes  appealed 
to  the  emperors  to  help  them.     Moslem  raids  extended 


THE  NORSEMEN,  SARACENS  AND  MAGYARS        235 

into  Provence  and  even  into  Upper  Burgundy,  while  in 
the  Vaud  districts  Moslems  and  Magyars  met  in 
conflict. 

Finally,  in  915,  Pope  John  X.  gathered  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  Italian  peninsula  together,  summoned  the 
Dukes  of  Beneventum  and  Spoleto  to  his  aid,  and  in- 
duced Berengar,  by  the  gift  of  the  Imperial  crown,  to 
join  him.  The  allied  armies  fell  upon  the  colony  at  the 
Garigliano  and  destroyed  it. 

The  sea  had  brought  the  Vikings  from  the  north  and  The  coming 
the  Saracens  from  Africa.  But,  as  though  to  complete  Magyars, 
its  record  of  destruction,  the  ninth  century  brought  down 
on  inland  Europe  a  foe  more  savage  and  ferocious  than 
Viking  or  Saracen.  The  Magyars,  or  Hungarians,  first 
appear  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Empire  in  884. 
Five  years  later,  under  their  chief  Arpad,  they  poured 
into  the  district  from  which  their  kinsmen  the  Avars 
had  been  driven  by  Charles  the  Great  a  century  before. 
From  this  basis  they  carried  on  a  campaign  of  destruc- 
tion all  along  the  eastern  frontier.  Mounted  on  swift 
horses,  armed  with  bows,  they  swept  over  the  country 
with  great  rapidity,  seldom  stopping  to  besiege  a  strong- 
hold or  risk  a  battle,  but  leaving  behind  them  a  trail 
of  burning  villages  and  slaughtered  people.  In  899 
they  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  Italy,  and  during  the 
reign  of  Louis  the  Child  in  Germany  their  raids  into 
Bavaria  and  Carinthia  were  incessant  and  disastrous. 
Luitpold,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  fell  in  battle  against  them  in 
907 .  Three  years  later  the  young  king,  who  took  the  field 
against  them  in  person,  barely  escaped  a  defeat  at  their 
hands.     During  the   reign  of  Conrad  they  penetrated 


m 


236 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


into  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  carrying  their  ravages  even 
into  West  Francia. 

In  our  next  chapter  we  shall  see  how  this  disastrous 
century  of  ravage  and  destruction  affected  the  social  and 
poHtical  constitution  of  Western  Europe.  All  the  work 
that  Charles  the  Great  had  done  seemed,  for  the  time, 
wholly  lost.  Yet  it  is  probable  that  if  that  work  had  not 
been  done  Europe  would  have  sunk  back  into  entire 
disintegration  and  barbarism,  and  Constantinople  would 
have  remained  the  sole  surviving  refuge  of  Christianity, 
culture  and  the  traditions  of  Imperial  Kome. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


THE  DARK  AGES 


^HE  name  *'  the  Dark  Ages,"  which  is  often  applied 
to  the  whole  of  the  period  covered  by  this  volume, 
is  specially  applicable  to  the  ninth  century.  Yet  in  the  Tiie  ninth 
obscure  records  of  the  time  we  can  see  how  the  outlines  Europe 
of  mediaeval  Europe  are  shaping  themselves.  In  place 
of  the  union  of  Western  Europe  into  one  Empire, 
national  divisions  begin.  The  middle  kingdom  dissolves 
into  the  independent  kingdoms  of  Boso  and  Rudolph 
and  the  debatable  land  of  Lotharingia,  and  under  Louis 
III.  it  seemed  as  though  Italy  also  might  become  a 
kingdom,  self-contained  and  united.  In  the  West  the 
old  Latin  world  absorbs  its  conquerors,  and  the  very 
name  "  Frank  "  becomes  the  title  of  a  Romance  people, 
showing  little  trace  of  their  semi-Teutonic  ancestry. 
The  Eastern  kingdom,  on  the  other  hand,  becomes  more 
definitely  Teutonic,  and  finds  its  strength  in  the  less 
Romanised  Saxons  and  Bavarians,  between  whom, 
though  common  danger  held  them  together,  a  deep- 
seated  antagonism  existed. 

But  these  new  nations  were  not  organised  for  common  Growth  of 

T    «.     ,     feudal  ideas 

action,  and  the  practical  work  of  deience  was  leit  to 
each  local  baron  in  his  own  district.  What  was  needed 
was  a  body  of  horsemen  ready  at  any  moment  to  ride  out 

237 


238 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDI.^VAL  EUROPE 


in  pursuit  of  Norse  or  Magyar  plunderers.     And  for  the 
supply  of  these  he  naturally  turned  to  the  smaller  land- 
owners of  his  gau.     So  there  grew  up  a  new  relation- 
ship between  the  smaller  freeman  and  the  local  noble 
—a  relationship  expressed  in  the  idea  of  homage,  by 
which  the  overlord  undertook  to  defend  his  vassal  and 
the  vassal  became  the  '*  man  "  of  the  overlord.     As  a 
result  of  this,  the  obligation  of  military  service  gradually 
became  attached  to  the  ownership  of  land ;  and  a  new 
social  order  based  on  land  grew  up  in  Western  Europe. 
Meanwhile  the  poorer  people  must  have  suffered  in- 
calculably from  the  raids  that  destroyed  their  homes  and 
swept  away  their  harvests.     All  provision  for  the  future 
seemed  useless,  and  all  attempts  at  self-improvement 
were   discouraged.       The   mass    of    the    peasantry   in 
Serfdom     Western  Europe  sank  to  the  condition  of  serfs,  whose 
miserable  hovels  clustered  around  the  castle  of  the  over- 
lord.   For  the  castle  is  the  one  architectural  creation  of 
the  ninth  century.     Built  originally  as  places  of  refuge, 
to  which  the  population  could  fly  when  Viking  or  Mag- 
yar appeared,  they  gradually  became  strongholds  from 
which  some  local  baron  tyrannised  over  the  country-side. 
TheChurch      The  Church,  while  gaining   in  material  prosperity, 
declined  in  moral  influence.      Great  ecclesiastics  were 
statesmen  and  often  warriors ;  the  age  of  missionaries 
and  saints  was,  for  the  time,  over.    Though  the  Slavs  of 
the  East  were  gradually  acquiring  some  civiHsation,  little 
missionary  work  had  as  yet  been  done  among  them. 
Meanwhile  the   nobles  acquired  for  their   children  or 
followers  the  titles  and  revenues  of  bishoprics  and  abbeys, 
so  that  lay  abbots  abounded,  whose  only  relation  to  the 


THE  DARK  AGES 


239 


abbey  was  a  vague  duty  of  defending  it  and  a  definite 
claim  on  its  revenues.  But  though  the  monasteries, 
where  laymen  often  stored  their  wealth  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Church,  suffered  greatly  from  the  attacks 
of  the  Northmen,  the  lamp  of  learning  did  not  wholly 
go  out  even  in  these  troublous  times.  At  some  of  the 
great  monastic  centres,  such  as  Fulda,  St.  Gall,  Old 
Corbey,  Orleans  and  Rheims,  the  monastic  schools  were 
kept  alive,  and  the  beginnings  of  German  literature  are 
to  be  found  in  the  translations  and  paraphrases  of  por- 
tions of  the  Bible  provided  by  the  monks  of  this  period. 

In  the  general  breakdown  of  authority  in  the  ninth  ThePapacy 
century,  the  claims  of  the  Papacy  were  steadily  advanc- 
ing. The  "  False  Decretals  "  first  appear  during  this 
century,  and  some  of  the  Popes  of  the  time  were 
energetic  in  maintaining  the  claims  to  which  these 
decretals  seemed  to  give  their  sanction.  The  most 
notable  of  the  Popes  of  the  ninth  century  was  Nicolas 
I.  (858-867),  who  not  only  humbled  King  Lothair,  but 
also  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  over  the  Arch- 
bishops of  Ravenna,  Cologne,  Treves,  and  even  the 
great  Hincmar  of  Rheims.  Nicolas  is  also  associated 
with  the  beginning  of  the  schism  between  the  Roman 
and  Byzantine  Churches,  which  grew  out  of  a  disputed 
succession  to  the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople.  One 
of  the  candidates,  Photius,  appealed  to  the  Roman 
Court,  and  a  long  contest  ensued,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Pope  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  Photius'  an- 
tagonist, Ignatius.  The  question  was  complicated  by 
a  dispute  about  the  newly  founded  Bulgarian  Church, 
which  claimed  the  right  to  transfer  its  allegiance  from. 


240 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE 


the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  the  Pope.  But 
behind  all  immediate  causes  of  dispute  lay  the  larger 
question  of  the  claim  of  the  Popes  to  supremacy  over 
the  whole  Church— a  claim  that  the  Byzantine  Church 
declined  to  admit.  For  nearly  two  hundred  years  the 
relation  between  the  two  Churches  remained  unde- 
termined, till  the  final  completion   of   the   schism   in 

1054. 
c,     ^  ..         At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century  the  first  step 

Foundation       ^^  ^^^^  -^  &  e»  i    i  u       i.u 

ofciuny,    -jj  ^Y^Q  direction  of  Church  reform  was  taken  by    the 
^^^  establishment,  in  911,  of  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  in 

Burgundy,  on  land  granted  by  William,  Duke  of  Upper 
Aquetaine,  to  Berno,  Abbot  of  Beaume,  who  was  already 
known  as  a  monastic  reformer.  The  history  of  how 
this  grain  of  mustard  seed  became  a  great  tree  belongs 
to  the  succeeding  century. 

In  918  Europe  still  had  nearly  a  century  of  strife  to 
face  before  the  forces  of  order  gained  a  hardly  won 
victory  over  the  dangers  of  the  time,  but  with  the 
accession  of  Henry  the  Fowler  in  Germany,  the  founda- 
tion of  Cluny,  and  the  rise  of  fortified  strongholds  along 
every  river  valley  of  Western  Europe,  the  darkest  hour 
was  passed  and  the  period  of  restoration  had  begun. 


:1 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

SOME  CHRONICLERS  OF  THE  PERIOD 

JT  may  be  well  to  close  this  volume  by  saying  some- 
thing of  a  few  of  the  chief  original  authorities  on 
which  we  depend  for  our  knowledge  of  the  events  of  the 
time.  For  a  considerable  part  of  the  period  we  are  de- 
pendent on  a  small  number  of  writers,  and  these  not  of 
the  first  rank ;  occasionally  we  are  left  almost  entirely 
in  the  dark  about  important  groups  of  events. 

Among  the  chroniclers  of  the  Eastern   Empire  theProcopius 
only   one  deserving  of  specific    mention  is   Procopius. 
He  came  from  Caesarea  to  Constantinople  during  the 
reign  of  Anastasius,  and  practised  for  some  time  as  a 
lawyer.     He   was   advanced   by   Justinian   to    various 
offices  of  trust,  and  ultimately  became  a  Senator  and 
Prefect  of  Constantinople.     His  eariiest  important  post 
was  that  of  secretary  to  Belisarius,  whom  he  accom- 
panied in  his  Persian,  African  and  Italian  wars.     On 
his  return  to  Constantinople  in  542  he  set  to  work  on 
the  writing  of  a  history  of  these  campaigns.     When  he 
had  completed  these,  he  wrote  a  book,  De  ^dificiia 
Justiniani  Imperatoris.     A  more  important  work  was 
his  Anecdota,  a  gossipy  chronicle  full  of  stories  of  the 
Court  of  Justinian.     It  gives  a  very  unpleasing  picture 
of  the  Emperor  and  his  court,  and  is  especially  bitter 
16  241 


242 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


in   dealing   with   Theodora,   against  whom   Procopius 
seems  to  have  entertained  a  strong  prejudice. 

Of  his  historical  works  the  De  Bello  Gothico  is  the 
longest  and  the  most  valuable.     It  is  our  only  source  of 
information  for  most  of  the  struggle  between  the  Goths 
and  the  Empire,  and,  as  the  work  of  a  man  who  was 
himself  in  the  thick  of  the  contest,  it  is  a  record  of  first- 
class  importance.     Gibbon  describes  Procopius  as  -  the 
gravest  historian  of  the  times,"  and  attaches  great  value 
to  his  work.     His  book  on  the  buildings  of  Justinian  is 
full  of  interest.     Though  marked  by  exaggerated  lauda- 
tion of  Justinian— a  laudation  very  different  from  the 
picture  drawn  in  the  Aiiecdota— it  gives  an   accurate 
account  of  the  buildings  that  had  been  erected  in  all 
parts  of  the  Empire  by  the  last  Emperor  who  possessed 
the   old   Eoman   passion   for   building.      Incidentally, 
Procopius  gives  some  useful  accounts   of   the   vanous 
nations  then  included  in  the  Empire. 
Agathias         The  story  of  the  end  of  the  Gothic  war  and  of  other 
events  in  the  later  years  of  Justinian  is  told  by  Agathias, 
a  Eoman  lawyer  of  Constantinople,  who  was  inspired 
by  the  example  of  Procopius  to  continue  his  work.     He 
carries  the  record  down  to  the  year  559.     After  this 
time  we  are  dependent  on  chroniclers  of  inferior  kind 
for  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 
Liher  For  Papal  history  our  great  authority  is  the  Liher 

^^t%    Pontificalis,  which  contains  lives  of  all  the  Popes,  from 
'  ''''''    St.  Peter  to  Stephen  VI.    (891).     The  lives   become 
much  more  valuable  after  the  year  600,  when  they  begin 
to  be  founded  on  contemporary  records.     The  book  has 
sometimes,  but  apparently  incorrectly,  been  regarded  as 


SOME  CHRONICLERS  OF  THE  PERIOD  243 

an  official  chronicle  compiled  by  order  of  the  Popes. 
The  earlier  part  is  marked  by  a  strong  tendency  to  sup- 
port  the  later  political  claims  of  the  Eoman  See. 

For  the  relation  of  the  Papacy  to  Prankish  affairs 
the  Codex  Carolinus,  a  collection  of  letters  written  by 
the  Popes  to  the  Prankish  kings,  is  very  valuable.  We 
also  have  twelve  books  of  letters  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
and  a  large  collection  of  letters  written  to  successive 
Popes  by  Archbishop  Boniface. 

Paul  the  Deacon  wrote  a  life  of  Gregory  the  Great 
which  provides  some  useful  information  about  the  great- 
est of  the  Popes  of  the  period.  Of  the  various  lives  of 
the  missionary  leaders  of  the  Church,  the  best  are  the 
life  of  Benedict,  by  Gregory  the  Great,  and  that  of 
Columbanus,  by  Jonas  of  Bobbio,  written  about  a.d.  650. 

For  the  history  of  the  Goths  our  chief  authority  isjordanes 
Jordanes,  a  monk  of  the  sixth  century,  who  wrote  a 
book,  De  Rebus  Geticis,  for  which  he  derived  the 
materials  from  a  work  of  Cassiodorus  on  The  Origin  and 
Acts  of  the  Goths.  This  fact  gives  to  the  work  of 
Jordanes  a  special  interest.  Cassiodorus  was  one  of  the 
few  Eoman  nobles  who  threw  themselves  warmly  into 
Theodoric's  idea  of  uniting  Eoman  and  Goth  in  one 
political  system,  and  it  was  probably  to  further  this 
scheme  that  the  senator  collected  the  traditions  of  the 
Gothic  people.  Jordanes,  who  was  probably  of  Gothic 
ancestry,  writing  his  account  of  the  Goths  after  the  fall 
of  the  Gothic  kingdom,  tries  to  set  forth  the  nobility 
of  the  Gothic  race,  while  at  the  same  time  celebrating 
the  restoration  of  the  Imperial  authority. 

Jordanes  himself  has  no  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a 


jnid£<SCi^HBHMtal>V^ 


244  THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

historian.  He  appears  to  have  been  a  mere  transcriber, 
and  often  a  bad  transcriber,  of  other  men's  work.  But 
we  are  almost  entirely  dependent  on  him  for  our  mfor- 
mation  as  to  the  early  history  of  the  Goths. 

For  the  reign  of  Theodoric  the  letters  and  Vamcf^  of 
Cassiodorus  are  a  valuable  source  of  information,  and 
some  interesting  light  is  thrown  on  his  pohcy  by  the 
Panegyric  or  Oration  addressed  to  Theodonc  by  En- 
nodius,  the  friend  and  biographer  of  Epiphanius,  about 
the  year  504  or  a  little  later.     A  great  deal  of  our  mfor- 
mation  about  this  period  is  derived  from  the  Annals  of 
Ravenna,  which  are  not  themselves  extant,  but  form  a 
source  from  which   several  writers   derive  their  facts. 
Among   these  the   most  important   is  a  writer  whose 
work  is  known  as  Anonymous  Valesii,  because  it  was 
first  pubhshed  by  Henry  de  Valois  in  the  seventeenth 
century.     The  fragment  covers  the  whole  of  the  reign 
of  Theodoric,  and  is  said  by  Dr.  Hodgkin  to  show  a  de- 
cided bias  in  favour  of  the  Byzantine  Empire. 
Gregory  of      For  the  sixth  century  in  Northern  Europe  we  are 
almost  wholly  dependent  on  the  work  of   Gregory  of 
Tours.     Gregory,  who  was  born  in  538,  belonged  to  a 
noble  family  of  Auvergne,  of  which  diocese  his  uncle 
was  bishop.     In  573  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Tours, 
where  he  remained  till  his  death  in  594.     The  position 
of  Tours,  just  at  the  meeting-place  of  the  three  king- 
doms  of  Austrasia,  Neustria  and  Burgundy,  brought  it 
into  the  thick  of  the  events  of  the  time.     It  was  the 
darkest  hour  of  Merovingian  misrule,  before  the  race  of 
Clovis  had   sunk   to  the  condition  of  faineant  kings, 
and  through  the  confusion  of  the  time  Gregory  had  to 


SOME  CHRONICLERS  OF  THE  PERIOD 


245 


Tours 


steer  himself  and  his  diocese  as  best  he  could.  His 
history,  beginning  from  the  creation,  carries  the  story 
of  the  Franks  down  to  nearly  the  end  of  his  own  life. 
His  narrative  is  artless  and  often  clumsy  in  style,  but 
it  gives  a  vigorous  and  living  picture  of  the  fierce  and 
strenuous  age  in  which  he  lived.  He  has  been  accused 
of  painting  too  dark  a  picture ;  but  at  least  he  writes 
with  intimate  personal  knowledge. 

Our  chief  authority  for  the  history  of  the  Franks  after  Frede- 
the  close  of  Gregory's  history  is  Fredegarius,  a  chronicler^*""'' 
of  whose  life  we  know  nothing,  and  whose  work  is  a 
mere  record  of  events  with  nothing  of  the  personal  in- 
terest that  attaches  to  Gregory's  narrative.    Fredegarius 
carries  the  story  of  the  Franks  down  to  641. 

For  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Great  and  the  period 
immediately  before  it  we  have  much  more  information. 
An  unknown  writer  has  continued  Fredegarius'  chronicle 
to  the  year  768,  and  for  the  latter  part  of  this  period 
the  record  has  a  semi-official  character,  having  been 
apparently  supervised  by  members  of  the  royal  house. 
Another  Frankish  chronicle,  the  Annates  Laurissenses, 
covers  the  period  from  741  to  829.  There  is  some 
reason  to  believe  that  Einhard  himself  supervised  the 
keeping  of  this  chronicle  for  the  latter  part  of  the 
period.  To  Einhard  we  are  indebted  for  the  Life  of 
Charles  the  Great,  from  which  we  derive  most  of  our 
information  as  to  the  personal  life  and  character  of  the 
king.  About  half  a  century  after  the  death  of  Charles 
a  monk  of  St.  Gall  collected  a  number  of  facts  and 
legends  about  the  Emperor  and  his  court  into  a  narra- 
tive which  is  of  doubtful  value  to  the  historian,  though 


246 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Paul  the 
Deacon 


a  good  deal  of  it  may  be  true.  Of  later  Frankish 
chroniclers  Nithard,  who  records  the  contests  of  Louis 
the  Pious,  is  the  best. 

Only  one  other  historical  work  of  the  period,  Paul  the 
Deacon's  Historia  Langohardorum,  deserves  specific 
mention.  Paul,  who  was  born  near  Friuli,  in  725,  be- 
longed to  a  noble  Lombard  family.  He  was  educated 
at  Pavia,  and  subsequently  became  a  monk  at  the  great 
Benedictine  house  of  Monte  Cassino.  We  next  find 
him  acting  as  Hterary  adviser  to  Arichis,  Duke  of  Bene- 
ventum,  the  last  of  the  Lombard  dukes  to  retain  his  in- 
dependence. He  visited  the  Court  of  Charles  the  Great 
in  782,  but  returned  to  Monte  Cassino  six  years  later, 
and  died  there  at  about  the  end  of  the  century.  His 
history  of  the  Lombards  takes  the  story  down  to  744, 
and  is  the  source  from  which  we  derive  most  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  early  history  of  the  Lombard  people. 

Most  of  the  chroniclers  mentioned  in  this  chapter 
will  be  found  in  Pertz'  great  edition  of  the  chroniclers 
of  Germany — the  Monumenta  Germanirc  Historica — 
or  in  Migne's  Patrologia.  Some  of  them  are  also  in 
Muratori's  Scriptoriim  Rerum  Italicarum.  The 
Byzantine  chroniclers  are  collected  in  the  Corpus 
Scriptorum  Historice  Byzantince,  edited  by  Niebuhr. 
The  best  edition  of  the  Liber  Pontificalis  is  that  of 
Duchesne,  whose  Introduction  is  valuable. 


APPENDIX 


EMPERORS 


Zeno,  474-491. 

Anastasius  I.,  491-518. 

Justin  I.,  518-527. 

Justinian,  527-565. 

Justin  II.,  565-578. 

Tiberius  Constantinus,  578-582. 

Maurice,  582-602. 

Phocas,  602-610. 

Heraclius,  610-641. 

Constantinus,  641-668. 

Constantine   IV.   (Pogonatus),  668 

685. 
Justinian  II.,  685-695. 
Leontius,  695-698. 
Tiberius,  698-705. 
Justinian  II.  (restored),  705-711. 
Philippicus,  711-713. 
Anastasius  II.,  713-715. 


{a)  In  the  East 

Theodosius  III.,  715-717. 

Leo  the  Isaurian,  717-741. 

Ck)nstantine  Copronymus,  741-775. 

Leo  IV.  (the  Khazar),  775-780. 

Constantine  VI.,  780-797. 

Irene,  797-802. 

Nicephorus,  802-811. 

Stauracius,  811-812. 

Michael  I.,  812-813. 

Leo  V.  (the  Armenian),  813-820. 

Michael  (the  Amorian),  820-829. 

Theophilus,  829-842. 

Michael  III.  (the   Drunkard),  842- 

867. 
Basil  the  Macedonian,  867-886. 
Leo  VL,  '♦the  Wise,"  886-912. 
Constantine  VII.,  912-959. 


(6)  In  the  West 
Charles  the  Great,  800-814.  Berengar  -v 


Louis  the  Pious,  814-840. 
Lothair,  840-855. 
Louis  II.,  855-875. 
Charles  the  Bald,  875-877. 
Charles  the  Fat,  881-887. 


888-896. 


Wido        / 
Arnulf,  896-899. 
Berengar  ^ 

Louis  of  Provence  /  ^^^-^^l- 
Berengar,  916-924. 
247 


248 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


{The 


Simplicius,  468-483. 
Felix  III.,  483-492. 
Gelasius  I.,  492-498. 

Vigilius,  537-555. 
Pelagius  I.,  555-560. 
John  III.,  560-574. 
Benedict  I.,  574-578. 
Pelagius  II.,  578-590. 
Gregory  I.,  590-604. 

Gregory  II.,  715-731. 
Gregory  III.,  731-741. 
Zacharias,  741-752. 
Stephen  II.,  752-757. 
Paul  I.,  757-768. 


POPES 

less  important  are  omitted.) 

Stephen  III.,  768-772. 
Hadrian  I.,  772-795. 
Leo  III.,  795-816. 
Stephen  IV.,  816-817. 
Paschal  I.,  817-824. 

Leo  IV.,  847-855. 
Benedict  III.,  855-858. 
Nicolas  I.,  858-867. 

Stephen  V.,  885-891. 
Formosus,  891-896. 
Bonifacius  V.,  896. 
Stephen  VI.,  896-897. 

John  X.,  914-928. 


J 


INDEX 


Aachen,  177,  179-81,  204,  207,  210, 

214,  230. 
—  Partition  of,  207. 
Abbassides,  136,  161. 
Abdurrahman,  109,  110,  161. 
Adalbert  of  Tuscany,  224. 
Adoptionism,  169,  194. 
Agathias,  242. 
Agilulf,  King  of  the  Lombards,  71, 

83,  91. 
Aistulf,  King  of  the  Lombards,  124- 

31. 
Alaric,  2,  11. 
Alaric  II.,  28,  42-6. 
AlbinuB,  32. 
Alboin,  82. 
Alcuin,  175,  191-8. 
Alemanni,  42,  45,  71,  114,  154,  208. 
Amalaric,  30. 
Amalasuentha,  31,  33. 
Ambl^ve,  105. 
Anastasius,  15,  21,  25,  30,  46,  48, 

54. 
Aquetaine,    6,    108,  110,   114,  118, 

146,  162,  204,  206,   207,  210, 

211,  213,  215,  227. 
Aquileia,  21. 
Arianism,  3,  4,  10,  11  n.,25,  28,  30, 

31,  33,  44,  72,  84. 
Aries,  110. 
Arnulf  of  Metz,  96. 
Arnulf,  Emperor,  217-9,  223. 
Aspar,  14. 
Athalaric,  33. 
Attigny,  209. 

Augustine,  Mission  of,  3,  92. 
Austrasia,  52,  71,  91,  96,  98,  101, 

113. 


Avars,  61-3,  74,  165-7. 
Avignon,  110,  111. 
Avitus,  44. 

Bari,  233. 

Basil  the  Macedonian,  143. 

Bavaria,  83,  99,  101,  107,  108,  114, 

115,  147,  162-5,  207,  213,  235, 

237. 
Bede,  192. 

Belisarius,  34-7,  56,  58. 
Benedict  of  Nursia,  65-70. 
Benedict  Biscop,  192. 
Beneventum,  Duchy  of,  82,  91,  121, 

160,  164,  168,  186,  233,  234. 
Berengar  of  Friuli,  222-5. 
Bernhard,  King  of  Italy,  207,  208. 
Bobbio,  Monastery  of,  72. 
Boethius,  31,  32. 
Boniface,  Archbishop,  3,  102,  103, 

108,  111,  116,  117,  119,  126. 
Bordeaux,  46,  109. 
Boso,  216. 
Brittany,  44. 

Brunhilda,  51,  71,  95,  96. 
Bulgarians,  78,  79,  136,  140,  142. 
Burgundy,  6,   12,   15,  31,  45,  50-2, 

71,  101,  146,  163,  215. 

—  Cisjurane,  217. 

—  Transjurane,  216,  218. 

Cambrai,  40,  47. 
Capitularies,  189,  190. 
Carloman  L,  113,  115,  129. 
Carloman  IL,  146-8. 
Carthage,  12,  29,  57,  79,  85,  105. 
Cassiodorus,  27,  33. 


249 


p 


250 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Charles  the  Great,  Administration 
of,  185-90. 
Coronation  of,  14,  176-9. 

—  Donation  of,  150-2. 

—  Legends  of,  200-3. 

Personal  character  of,  145, 146, 

180-4. 
Charles  Martel,  5,  104-12. 
Charles  the  Bald,  198,  208-16,  221, 

228 
Charles  the  Fat,  215,  217,  230. 
Charles  the  Simple,  217,  221,  231. 
Chosroes  of  Persia,  58,  73,  74. 
Clair-sur-Epte,  Treaty  of,  232. 
Clodion,  40. 
Clotair,  52,  96. 
Clotilda,  42. 
Clovis,  King  of  the  Franks,  3,  29, 

40-7,  145. 
Cluny,  Foundation  of,  240. 
Colchis,  58. 

Cologne,  40,  42,  46,  105,  154,  157. 
Columban,  70-2. 

Conrad  of  Franconia,  145,  219,  220. 
Consolations  of  Philosophy,  32. 
Constantine,  Donation  of,  124-6. 
Constantine      V.,     "  Copronymus," 

138-40. 
Constantine  (son  of  Irene),  140-2. 
Constantine  "  Pogonatus,"  78. 
Constantinople,  Foundation   of,   2, 

10,  17. 

—  Patriarch  of,  3,  85,  86,  90,  138, 
239,  240. 

—  Siege  of,  78,  134,  135. 

—  Situation  of,  14. 

—  Theodoric  in,  17. 

Dacia,  8,  10. 

Dagobert,  98. 
♦'  Decretals,  False,"  239. 
Desiderata,  147,  148. 
Desiderius,  King  of  the  Lombards, 
131,  147-9. 

Ebroin,  99,  100. 
Egbert  of  Wessex,  179. 
Einhard,  106,  176,  181,  195,  245. 
Eresburg,  155,  156. 
Eric  of  Friuli,  166, 167. 


Eudo  of  Aquetaine,  105,  106,  108- 

10. 
Euric,  42. 

Fastrada,  167. 
Felix  of  Urgel,  169. 
Feudalism,  237. 
Fontenay,  Battle  of,  213. 
Formosufi,  Pope,  222-4. 
Frankfort,  Council  of,  165,  170. 
Franks,  Rise  of,  8,  12,  39. 

—  Laws  of,  5,  49. 

—  Organisation  of,  47-9. 
Fredegarius,  245. 
Fredegonda,  51,  52,  95. 
Frederick,  King  of  the  Rugians,  20-2. 
Frisia,  101,  102,  105,  106,  154. 
Fritzlar,  156. 

Gakioliano,  Saracen  settlement  on, 

234,  235, 
Gauls,  49. 
Genseric,  King  of  the  Vandals,  12, 

13. 
Gepidae,  16,  63,  81. 
Germanus,  138. 
Gerold,  166. 
Gesalic,  29. 

Goths,  Early  History  of,  10,  11. 
Greek  fire,  134. 
Gregory  the  Great,  88-92. 
Gregory  XL,  93,  102,  120-2,  139. 
Gregory  IIL,  111,  122,  123. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  46,  52,  244. 
Grifo,  113,  115. 
Grimoald,  Mayor  of  Austrasia,  98, 

99,  116. 
Grimoald,  Duke  of  Beneventum,  168. 
Gundobad,  King  of  the  Burgundi- 

ans,  12,  22,  29,  42,  45,  46. 

Hadrian,  Pope,  148-60,  163-5,  170. 
Haroun-al-Raschid,  142,  180. 
Hatto,  Bishop,  219. 
Henry,  Duke  of  Saxony,  7,  220. 
Heraclius,  Emperor,  4,  62,  73,  77. 
Hermengarda,  206,  207. 
Hildegarde,  148,  166,  167. 
Hincmar  of  Rheims,  199. 
Hunold,  110,  146,  147. 
Huns,  11,  16,  58. 


INDEX 


251 


I 


Iceland,  202. 

Iconoclastic     controversy,     136-44, 

170. 
Ildibad,  36. 

Institutions,  Justinian's,  60. 
Ireland,  70,  191,  227. 
Irene,  Empress,  140-2,  171,  179. 
Irminsul,  155,  156. 

Jerusalem,  Captures  of,  73,  74,  77. 

—  Embassy  from,  175. 
John  I.,  Pope,  30,  33. 
John  X.,  Pope,  224,  235. 
John  Scotus  Erigena,  198,  199. 
Jordanes,  18,  243. 

Judith,  208,  209. 
Jumi^ges,  72,  165. 
Justin  L,  30,  54. 
Justin  II.,  61,  63,  88. 
Justinian  I.,  Buildings  of,  58. 

—  Chnracter  of.  54,  55. 

—  Conquests  of,  34,  56-8. 

—  Laws  of,  59,  60. 
Justinian  II.,  78. 

Khaled,  76. 
"  Khalifa,"  76. 

Laon,  113. 

Leo  the  Great,  Pope,  86. 

Leo  III.,  Pope,  172-6,  206. 

Leo  IV.,  Pope,  233. 

Leo  the  Isaurian,  19,  79,  133-9. 

—  Edict  of,  121-3,  137-9. 
Leo  IV.,  140. 

Leo  "  the  Wise,"  143. 

Leodegar,  Bishop  of  Autun,  99,  100. 

Liber  Pontificalis,  242. 

Libri  Caroliiii,  170. 

Liutgarda,  167-175. 

Liutprand,  King  of  the  Lombards, 

108,  111,  120-3. 
Lombards,  4,  71,  81-94,  107,  111, 

120-32,  147-50. 
Lothair  I.,  207,  209-11. 
Lothair  II.,  215. 

Lotharingia,  211,  215,  216,  219,  222. 
Louis  the  Pious,  163,  168,  181,  199, 

204-11.-227. 
Louis  II.,  1 216,  233,  234. 


Louis  "the  German,"    207,   213-6. 
Louis  the  Child,  219,  220. 
Louis  I'Aveugle,  217,  224. 
Liigenfeld,  209. 
Luxeuil,  71,  99. 

Magdeburg,  155,  220. 

Magyars,  6,  226,  235,  236. 

Margraves,  186. 

Martin  I.,  93. 

Maurice,  62,  90. 

Mayor  of  the  Palace,  95. 

Merovingians,  Later,  95,  106. 

Merowig,  40. 

Metz,  50,  51,  96,  98,  197. 

Michael  the  Amorian,  143. 

Michael  "  the  Drunkard,"  143. 

Milman,  quoted,  52. 

Missi  Dominici,  187,  188. 

Mohammed,  74-6. 

Monasticism,  65. 

Monophysites,  15,  137. 

Monte  Cassino,  66-8,  115,  129,  131. 

Narbonne,  109,  111,  118,  180. 

Narses,  38,  56,  57. 

Neustria,  52,  71,  96,  99,  101,  105. 

113. 
Nicoea,  Council  of,  140,  170. 
Nicephorus,  142. 
Nicolas  I.,  239. 
••  Nika  "  sedition,  55. 
Nimuegen,  180.  209,  227. 
Norsemen,  invasions  of,  6,  7,  187, 

211.  215,  222.  226. 
Northumbria,  92.  101,  191,  192. 

Odilo  of  Bavaria,  114. 

Odo  of  Paris,  217-18.  220.  231. 

Odoacer,  12,  20-3. 

Offa,  166,  168,  169. 

Omar,  77. 

Orestes,  12. 

Orleans,  50,  51,  239. 

Ostmark,  167,  186. 

Ostrogoths,  10.  16,  44,  64. 

Otho  of  Saxony,  219. 

Paderborn,  156,  174. 
Palace  School,  193. 


252 


THE  DAWN  OF  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 


Palgrave,  Sir  F.,  228. 

Pampeluna,  161. 

Pandects,  Justinian's,  59. 

Papacy,  Rise  of,  2,  85. 

Paris,  42,  47,  50.  51,  98,  99,  105, 

175,  209,  228,  231. 
Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  87-9,  170. 
Paul,  Pope,  131. 
Paul  the  Deacon,  82,  195,  246. 
Pavia,  12,  22,  36,  130,  147-50. 
Persia,  57,  58,  61,  73,  74,  76. 
Peter  of  Pisa,  195. 
Phocas,  62,  90. 
Pippin  of  Landen,  96-8. 
Pippin  of  Heristal,  100,  101,  104, 

105. 
Pippin,  King  of  the  Franks,  5, 113-9, 

126-32,  146. 
Pippin  the  Hunchback,  167. 
Pippin,  King  of  Italy,  163, 166, 168, 

180,  196. 
Pippin  of  Aquetaine,  209,  210. 
Pi^jpin  II.  of  Aquetaine,  211,  214, 

228. 
Plectrudis,  104,  105. 
Ponthion,  127. 
Procopius,  241. 
Provence,  50,  146. 

Ratchis,  123,  131. 

Ravenna,  22,  26-8,  33,  35,  36,  38, 

81,  87,  121,  122,  125,  126,  163, 

181. 
—  Exarch  of,  120-2,  129. 
Remigius,  42. 
Remiremont,  72. 
Rheims,  42,  239. 
Robert  the  Strong,  231. 
Robert  of  Paris,  221. 
Roland,  162,  187. 
Roland,  Song  of,  201. 
Roncesvalles,  162. 
Rotharis,  King  of  the  Lombards,  84, 

93. 
Rouen,  228. 

Rudolph  of  Burgundy,  217,  237. 
Ruric,  230. 

Salian  Laws,  49. 


Saracens,  6,  7,  77-80,  108-10,  118, 

135-7,  161,  187,  211,  224,  226, 

232-4. 
Saucourt,  230. 
Saxons,  53,  102, 105,  106,  114,  118, 

154-9. 
Scabini,  188. 
Septimania,  118,  168. 
Serfdom,  6,  48,  133,  238. 
Sicily,  143,  170,  232-4. 
Slavs,  7,  63,  64,  73,  133,  139,  140, 

157,  159,  186,  218,  238. 
Soissons,  12,  40,  42,  43,  50,  51,  117, 

128   197   222. 
Spain,  28,  29,  79,  80, 108,  109,  136, 

161. 
Spoleto,  Duchy  of,  65,  82,  91,  121, 

122,  125,  168,  174,  186,  218. 
Stephen  II.,  124-31,  147,  148. 
St.  Denis,  112,  198. 
St.  Gall,  71,  239. 
St.  Gall,  Monk  of,  180,  245. 
St.  Sophia,  Church  of,  59. 
Strasburg,  Oath  of,  214. 
Suabia,  146. 

Suatopluk  of  Moravia,  218. 
Susa,  129. 

Swanahild,  108,  113. 
Syagrius,  12,  42,  43. 
Symmachus,  31,  33. 

Tacitus   47. 

Tassilo,'ll4,  118,  147,  162-5. 

Teias,  38. 

Testri,  Battle  of,  100. 

Theodabad,  34. 

Theodelinda,  71,  83,  84,  91. 

Theodora,  55. 

Theodoric,  4,  16,  38,  45. 

Theodoric,  son  of  Triarius,  19,  20. 

Tiberius  II.,  61. 

Tolbiac,  42. 

Toledo,  Council  of,  92. 

Totila,  36-8,  67. 

Toulouse,  109,  204. 

Tournai,  40,  145. 

Tours,  Battle  of,  169. 

—  Monastery  of,  175,  194. 
Tufa,  21. 
Turjpin,  History  of  Archbishop,  201. 


INDEX 


253 


Utrecht,  102,  227. 

Vandals,  11,  13,  29,  31,  44,  57. 
Varingians,  230. 
Vassalage,  164,  238. 
Verden,  158,  159. 
Verdun,  Partition  of,  214. 
Verona,  21. 

Visigoths,  10,  11,  28,  29,  42,  44,  46, 
64,  79,  92. 

Waifer,  118,  146. 


Wedmore,  Peace  of,  229. 
Wido  of  Spoleto,  217-22. 
Widukind,  157-9. 
Willibrord,  101. 
Witigis,  34,  35. 
Worms,  164,  180,  208. 

Yermuk,  Battle  of,  76. 

Zacharias,  116,  123,  126. 
Zeno,  14,  15,  19,  20,  25. 
Zwentibold,  218,  219. 


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